May 2015 Charges Filed Against Six Baltimore Police Officers in the Death of Freddie Gray
May 1, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photos of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore addressing media on Friday, May 1, 2015
Above: AP photos of people in Baltimore, Maryland celebrating the announcement that six Baltimore police officers had been charged with various crimes in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, Friday, May 1, 2015
Above: AP map and graphic pertaining to the arrest and mortal injury of Freddie Gray on April 12, 2015; AP composite photo of the six Baltimore police officers charged with crimes pertaining to the arrest, injury, and death of Freddie Gray, Friday, May 1, 2015
"Saying 'no one is above the law,' Baltimore's top prosecutor announced charges Friday against six officers involved in the arrest of a black man whose neck was broken in police custody, a decision that comes amid outrage around the country over police brutality against African-Americans.
State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby declared that Freddie Gray's death was a homicide, his arrest was illegal, and his treatment amounted to murder and manslaughter. She detailed what happened to Gray during his arrest and the more than 30-minute ride in a police wagon, her outline either contradicting what police have said or shedding far more light on what happened inside the wagon.
Gray's knife was legal, not illegal as an officer claimed. And officers repeatedly refused to get Gray medical help, even though he kept asking for it, telling them he needed an inhaler and later that he couldn't breathe. At one point, he was shackled at the legs and put back in the wagon on his stomach. At another stop, an officer 'spoke to the back of Mr. Gray's head,' and even though he was unresponsive, made 'no effort to look or assess or determine his condition.'
'The findings of our comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, coupled with the medical examiner's determination that Mr. Gray's death was a homicide,' Mosby said, 'has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges.'
Onlookers cheered and expressed amazement over Mosby's announcement, which few expected so quickly. The city, which saw looting and businesses and cars burned on Monday, was still under a nighttime curfew and National Guard troops and police were out in full force. More than 200 people have been arrested and police said nearly 100 officers were injured.
As Mosby spokes on the steps of the War Memorial Building, cheers and shouts of 'Justice!' erupted. Mosby announced the charges one day after receiving the results of the internal police investigation and the autopsy report. As she spoke, the city braced for huge protests Friday and Saturday."
"Freddie Gray was murdered by police after an unlawful arrest, the Baltimore City state's attorney said Friday.
In a press conference, prosecutor Marilyn Mosby announced 28 charges against all six officers involved in Gray's arrest, for crimes ranging from second-degree murder to manslaughter to misconduct. Somewhat unexpectedly, Mosby chose to file the charges herself rather than seeking an indictment from a grand jury, a move that expedites the process but means that her characterization of events has not been subjected to any external review."
---The Atlantic, May 1, 2015
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Gained 183 Points and Closed Above 18,000
May 1, 2015 (Friday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 183 points, closing at 18,024 on May 1, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: New York Mets 4, Washington Nationals 0
May 1, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey in a Major League Baseball game versus the Washington Nationals in New York, Friday, May 1, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 2, Kansas City Royals 1
May 2, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of Detroit Tigers pitcher David Price in Major League Baseball action versus the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Saturday, May 2, 2015
The pressure of a $180 million payday never got to Floyd Mayweather Jr., even if the richest fight ever wasn't the best.
Using his reach and his jab Saturday night, Mayweather frustrated Manny Pacquiao, piling up enough points to win a unanimous decision in their welterweight title bout. Mayweather remained unbeaten in 48 fights, cementing his legacy as the best of his generation.
---Associated Press, May 3, 2015
Small Contingent of Arab Coalition Troops Enter Yemen
May 3, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Associated Press map pertaining to the political and social chaos in Yemen
"With helicopter gunships hovering overhead, at least 20 troops from a Saudi-led Arab coalition, including Yemeni expatriates, came ashore Sunday in the southern port city of Aden on what military officials called a 'reconnaissance' mission, as fighting raged between Iranian-backed Shiite rebels and forces loyal to the nation's exiled president.
The landing was the first of its kind since the start of the Saudi-led air campaign against the rebels and their allies — forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh — who have captured most of northern Yemen and marched on southern provinces over the past year.
The objective of the landing was not immediately clear, but Yemeni military officials said the coalition troops would attempt to better organize and train forces loyal to the country's internationally recognized leader, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, as well as identify an area that could serve as a 'green zone' from which Hadi and his government could operate when they return to Yemen."
---Associated Press, May 3, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit 6, Kansas City 4
May 3, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Detroit Tigers pitcher versus the Kansas City Royals in Major League Baseball action in Kansas City, Sunday, May 3, 2015
Above: AP photos of Major League Baseball action, the first being the Baltimore Orioles versus the Tampa Bay Rays, the second being the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, May 3, 2015
Gunmen Attempt Assault at Anti-Islam Event Near Dallas, Texas
May 3, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of right-wing activist Pamela Geller, president of Stop Islamization of America, at the American Defense Initiative even in Garland, Texas, May 3, 2015; AP photo of a Garland, Texas police vehicle on Sunday evening, May 3, 2015
"Two gunmen were killed Sunday after opening fire on a security officer outside a provocative contest for cartoon depictions of Prophet Muhammad in Texas and a bomb squad was called in to search their vehicle as a precaution, authorities said.
The men drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland as the contest was scheduled to end and began shooting at a security officer, the City of Garland said in a statement. Garland police officers returned fire, killing the men."
---Associated Press, May 4, 2015
2016 Presidential Election: Physician Ben Carson and Former CEO Carly Florina Announce Candidacies
May 4, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Dr. Ben Carson (left) and Carly Florina (right)
"The other man from Hope is running for president again.
Declaring Tuesday that he can bring 'the kind of change that truly can get America from hope to higher ground,' former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced his Republican candidacy in the hometown he shares with former President Bill Clinton.
Though they share roots in Hope, Huckabee is pitching himself as the best Republican to take on Bill's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the dominant Democrat in the 2016 race."
---Associated Press, May 5, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 7, Pittsburgh Pirates 1
May 5, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of Cincinnati Reds batter Marlon Byrd running the bases upon hitting a home run versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, May 5, 2015
Investigation: New England Patriots' Employees Likely Guilty in Deflategate
May 6, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the AFC Championship Game versus the Indianapolis, January 18, 2015; AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during a press conference on January 22, 2015
The 243-report on 'Deflategate' came out Wednesday and stopped barely short of calling the Patriots star quarterback a cheater. It did, however, call some of his claims 'implausible' and left little doubt that he had a role in having footballs deflated before New England's AFC title game against Indianapolis in January and probably in previous games.
In his report, attorney Ted Wells said the quarterback 'was at least generally aware' of all the plans to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch. Wells said it was 'more probable than not' that two Patriots employees — officials' locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski — executed the plan."
---Associated Press, May 6, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago Cubs 6, St. Louis Cardinals 5
May 6, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of Chicago Cubs batter Anthony Rizzo running the bases upon hitting a home run versus the St. Louis Cardinals on May 6, 2015
Parliamentary Elections in Great Britain: The Conservative Party Won a Majority, and David Cameron Remains Prime Minister
May 7-8, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of British Prime Minister David Cameron and wife returning to 10 Downing Street in London in the wake of the Conservative Party's electoral victory, Friday, May 8, 2015
"After years of sharing power, David Cameron pulled off an unexpected election triumph that gave the Conservative prime minister a second term with an outright majority Friday and dealt a stinging defeat to his three main rivals."
---Associated Press, May 8, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: New York Yankees 4, Baltimore Orioles 3
May 7, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photos of New York Yankees batter Alex Rodriguez (versus the Baltimore Orioles) hitting his 661st Major League Baseball home run on May 7, 2015, a hit that put him ahead of the total career home runs of Willie Mays
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 18,191 on May 8, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 6, Kansas City Royals 5
May 8, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of Detroit Tigers batter Ian Kinsler laying down a bunt versus the Kansas City Royals in Detroit on May 8, 2015; AP photo of Detroit Tigers players celebrating a victory over the Kansas City Royals, May 8, 2015
"Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Saturday condemned the Obama administration's use of 'coercive federal power' to limit religious freedom as he courted Christian conservatives at a Liberty University commencement ahead of a likely presidential run."
---Associated Press, May 9, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Baltimore Orioles 6, New York Yankees 2
May 9, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of a Baltimore Orioles pitcher in action versus the New York Yankees on May 9, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Colorado Rockies 5
May 10, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw in Major League Baseball action versus the Colorado Rockies in Denver, Sunday, May 10, 2015
Deflategate Scandal: NFL Suspends New England Quarterback Tom Brady for Four Games, Team Fined, Draft Picks Taken
May 11, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015; AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during a press conference on January 22, 2015
"The National Football League came down hard on the New England Patriots on Monday for their role in Deflategate, suspending star quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of next season and fining the franchise $1 million.
The NFL also said the Patriots will forfeit their first-round selection in the 2016 draft and a fourth-round pick in 2017 for using under-inflated footballs in last season's AFC Championship game."
---Reuters, May 11, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Baltimore Orioles 5, Toronto Blue Jays 2
"To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith. But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or 'nothing in particular' – has jumped more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%. And the share of Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths also has inched up, rising 1.2 percentage points, from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Growth has been especially great among Muslims and Hindus, albeit from a very low base."
"Christians are declining, both as a share of the U.S. population and in total number. In 2007, 78.4% of U.S. adults identified with Christian groups, such as Protestants, Catholics, Mormons and others; seven years later, that percentage has fallen to 70.6%. Accounting for overall population growth in that period, that means there are roughly 173 million Christian adults in the U.S. today, down from about 178 million in 2007."
"The Christian share of adults in the United States has declined sharply since 2007, affecting nearly all major Christian traditions and denominations, and crossing age, race and region, according to an extensive survey by the Pew Research Center.
Seventy-one percent of American adults were Christian in 2014, the lowest estimate from any sizable survey to date, and a decline of 5 million adults and 8 percentage points since a similar Pew survey in 2007.
The Christian share of the population has been declining for decades, but the pace rivals or even exceeds that of the country’s most significant demographic trends, like the growing Hispanic population. It is not confined to the coasts, the cities, the young or the other liberal and more secular groups where one might expect it, either."
---New York Times, May 12, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Pittsburgh Pirates 7, Philadelphia Phillies 2
"Rescue workers on Wednesday searched through twisted metal and debris after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, while investigators sought the cause of the accident that killed at least six people and injured scores of others.
Authorities said they did not know why the New York City-bound train carrying 243 people derailed at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (0130 GMT Wednesday), sending all seven cars and the engine off the track. One car was tossed upside down and three on their sides, and passengers and luggage were sent flying, survivors said."
"Federal investigators arrived Wednesday to determine why an Amtrak train jumped the tracks in a wreck that killed at least six people, injured dozens and plunged screaming passengers into darkness and chaos.
The mayor said some of the 238 passengers remained unaccounted for, raising fears the death toll could rise.
Train 188, a Northeast Regional, was en route from Washington to New York with 238 passengers and five crew members when it derailed as it was rounding a sharp curve in the city's working-class Port Richmond section shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
Passengers had to scramble through the windows of toppled cars to escape. One of the seven cars was severely mangled.
The accident closed the nation's busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived to begin examining the twisted wreckage, the tracks and the signals."
---Associated Press, May 13, 2015
By Treaty, the Vatican Officially Recognizes Palestine as a State
May 13, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: Mahmoud Abbas,President of the Palestinian Authority; Pope Francis
"The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized Wednesday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects.
The treaty, which concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.
The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state and constitutes official diplomatic recognition."
---Associated Press, May 13, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 5, Atlanta Braves 1
"After a week of painfully struggling to talk about the war in Iraq started by his brother, Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush stated definitively here Thursday that he would not have invaded that country based on the intelligence failures that now are known.
'Knowing what we now know, what would you have done? I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq,' Bush said at a campaign stop before a few dozen local business leaders at Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe.
Bush tried to explain his days of difficulty articulating a clear position on Iraq as the result of being reluctant to say anything that might suggest he was ungrateful for the sacrifice of the U.S. armed forces and their families during 12 years of war."
"After days of refusing to say whether, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Jeb Bush relented Thursday and said he would not have invaded.
'If we're all supposed to answer hypothetical questions, knowing what we know now, what would you have done?' Bush said with a twinge of annoyance while campaigning in Arizona. 'I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.'
It was an answer the former Florida governor and likely Republican candidate for president had refused to give in several public appearances this week, even as most of his Republican rivals did so and criticized him for sidestepping the question."
"The story we're hearing today is: Yes, it was a mistake. We wouldn't do it again knowing what we know now. But we acted on information that just turned out to be wrong. But that is quite simply a crock. The Bush administration was at best in deep denial about the true costs of the invasion. And it lead the country to war based on claims that were quite simply willful deceptions - lies. It may be too much to say that it was obvious to everyone at the time. But to reporters working the story and certainly anyone in the government, it was clear that the White House was involved in a mammoth exaggeration. Only later did it emerge that there was even more willful deception than those following closely realized at the time. Looking back and looking at the time it has always been somewhat difficult to find the bright line where flagrant lying met willful self-deception. But the truth is painful and clear: Iraq wasn't a good faith mistake. It was a calamity based on lies and willful deceptions. Much of that was clear at the time. It's all clear now."
---Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, May 15, 2015
The basic premise that this challenge to Jeb reinforces is that the Iraq War happened only because of bad intelligence. George W. Bush was misled by intelligence failures, and it still gives him a 'sickening feeling.' In this framing, the question becomes: Will you admit that you were misled into supporting a war that everyone now agrees in hindsight was an unnecessary and tragic mistake?
But this leaves out a big part of the story of the run-up to the war, which is that some people were arguing at the time against invading Iraq, on the grounds that the evidence was all right there in plain sight that Iraq did not pose a threat imminent enough to justify an invasion. Some people (I’m not claiming to be among them) were publicly shouting themselves hoarse, pointing out at the time that, at the very least, there were serious questions about whether Iraq really posed the threat the Bush administration claimed it did.
---Greg Sargent, Washington Post, May 14, 2015
May 14, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 18,252 on May 14, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 13, Minnesota Twins 1
May 14, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of Detroit Tigers batter Miguel Cabrera hitting a home run versus the Minnesota Twins in Detroit on May 14, 2015
"Islamic State militants on Friday afternoon seized the main government headquarters in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar Province, and raised their black flag before setting fire to the compound.
The capture of the building, even as it was too early to declare that the entire city had fallen to the Islamic State, appeared to represent a significant shift in the back-and-forth battle for Ramadi that has unfolded for nearly a year and a half in Iraq."
"Islamic State militants have seized the main government building in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province.
As many as six suicide car bombs and mortars were used in the assault on the compound that houses the main police HQ and governor's office.
At least 50 security personnel are reported to have been taken prisoner at the site.
IS and Iraqi troops have been battling for months to take control of the strategically important Anbar province.
The attack by IS militants began overnight when the suicide car bombs were driven into compound housing a number of government buildings, killing at least 10 people and wounding a number of others.
Fighting continued into Friday and by 14:00 (11:00 GMT) the black flag of IS was seen flying over the complex."
"Islamic State militants raised their black flag over the local government compound in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Friday and claimed victory through mosque loudspeakers after overrunning most of the western provincial capital.
The insurgents attacked Ramadi overnight using six suicide car bombs to reach the city center, where the Anbar governorate compound is located, police sources said.
Fighting continued on Friday in parts of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, and government forces were still in control of a military command center to the west of the city - the capital of Iraq's largest province.
If Ramadi were to fall completely to Islamic State it would be a strategic blow to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government, only six weeks after the army and Shi'ite militias took the city of Tikrit from Islamic State."
"ISIS has launched a wide-scale attack on Iraqi security forces in Ramadi in an apparent attempt to take the rest of the key central Iraqi city, a provincial governor said Friday.
The ISIS offensive, which started Thursday night and continued into Friday, included suicide attacks with explosive-rigged cars near security posts in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, Anbar Gov. Suhaib Al-Rawi said.
On Friday, ISIS raised its trademark black flag over the provincial government building after capturing it, according to a security source who just left the city and a civilian still inside the city.
Also ISIS captured the Ramadi police headquarters building and the Ramadi Great Mosque after fierce clashes that pushed Iraqi special forces from the area, the sources said."
"Islamic State militants on Friday captured the main government compound in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, after fierce clashes with security forces.
Ramadi's Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi says the militants raised the black flag of the IS group over the area after troops were forced to withdraw from the compound, which houses most of the city's government offices.
He said the IS militants, who also seized other parts of the city, are now attacking the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province.
Dalaf said at least 10 policemen were killed in the fighting and dozens of other security forces were wounded. He said IS militants killed several captured policemen and army officers in the city, where most civilians have fled.
U.S. troops saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year Iraq intervention in Anbar, and Ramadi was a major insurgent stronghold. The IS group captured the nearby city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in January 2014, months before its main sweep across northern and western Iraq.
The IS assault on the Ramadi government compound began with three nearly simultaneous suicide car bombings. Two Humvees previously seized from the Iraqi army were used in Friday's attack, al-Kubaisi said.
Dozens of families were forced to flee their homes in the area, said Athal al-Fahdawi, an Anbar councilman.
The head of Anbar's provincial council, Sabah Karhout, appealed to the central government in Baghdad to send reinforcements and urged the U.S.-led coalition to increase airstrikes against the militants in Ramadi."
"In Bushworld, in other words, playing a central role in catastrophic policy failure doesn’t disqualify you from future influence. If anything, a record of being disastrously wrong on national security issues seems to be a required credential."
"The Islamic State on Friday took control of the provincial government center of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, and appeared to be in control of most of the city in a major defeat for the Iraqi government.
Islamic State forces also appeared to be closing in on government positions in two other key locations in Anbar province, the towns of Baghdadi and Karmah, in a broad offensive that if successful would end the government presence in all of the province’s major population centers. The capture of Baghdadi also would cut the supply lines to the Iraqi garrison protecting the strategic Haditha Dam.
U.S. officials offered conflicting views of the events, with the State Department and the Pentagon at first downplaying the significance of what had taken place. But a later statement from the White House made clear that the situation was urgent and that the United States was rushing shipments of heavy weapons, ammunition and supplies to Iraq to deal with the Islamic State advance."
---McClatchy, May 15, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 10, St. Louis Cardinals 4
"American Special Operations forces mounted a rare raid into eastern Syria early Saturday, killing a leader of the Islamic State and about a dozen militant fighters, as well as capturing his wife and freeing an 18-year old Yazidi woman whom Pentagon officials said had been held as a slave.
In the first successful raid by American ground troops since the military campaign against the Islamic State began last year, two dozen Delta Force commandos entered Syria aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Ospreys and killed the leader, a man known as Abu Sayyaf. One American military official described him as the Islamic State’s 'emir of oil and gas.'"
"American special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State leader in a raid in Syria, U.S. officials said on Saturday, an operation that marked a departure from Washington's strategy of relying primarily on air strikes to target militants there.
Delta Force commandos used UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to punch deep into eastern Syria from Iraq. They engaged in a firefight and hand-to-hand combat with Islamic State fighters, killed a key figure in the group named as Abu Sayyaf and captured his wife, U.S. officials said.
The officials described Sayyaf, a Tunisian, as an Islamic State commander who helped manage the group's black-market sales of oil and gas to raise funds. The officials said President Barack Obama ordered the overnight operation, which killed about a dozen Islamic State fighters and had been planned for several weeks.
It marked the first known U.S. special forces operation inside Syria apart from a failed mission last year to rescue U.S. and other foreign hostages held by Islamic State in northeastern Syria.
Wary of the United States getting pulled deeper into Middle East conflicts, Obama has promised not to commit major ground forces in the fight against Islamic State, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq. But he has left open the prospect of special forces raids.
It was not immediately clear if this one marked the start of a new chapter in Syria."
"In a rare ground attack deep into Syria, U.S. Army commandos killed a man described as the Islamic State's head of oil operations, captured his wife and rescued a woman whom American officials said was enslaved.
A team of Delta Force commandos slipped across the border from Iraq under cover of darkness Saturday aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey aircraft, according to a U.S. defense official knowledgeable about details of the raid. The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Americans intended to capture a militant identified by U.S. officials as Abu Sayyaf. When they arrived at his location, a multi-story building, they met stiff resistance, the U.S. official said, and a firefight ensued, resulting in bullet-hole damage to the U.S. aircraft.
Abu Sayyaf was killed, along with an estimated dozen IS fighters, U.S. officials said. No American was killed or wounded.
Before the sun had risen, the commandos flew back to Iraq where Abu Sayyaf's wife, Umm Sayyaf, was being questioned in U.S. custody, officials said. The goal was to gain intelligence about IS operations and any information about hostages, including American citizens, who were held by the group, according to Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council."
---Associated Press, May 16, 2015
The War Against ISIS: The Battle of Ramadi, Iraq Continues
May 16, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: BBC map of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled; AP photo of Iraqi refugees fleeing Ramadi, Saturday, May 16, 2015
Above: BBC map regarding ISIS presence and control in Iraq and Syria, circa April 2015
Above: Map from the Institute for the Study of War
"The Islamic State on Saturday consolidated its control over Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, whose capture by the militants on Friday marked the worst defeat for the Iraqi government since the fall of Mosul nearly a year ago.
Iraqi and local officials said Islamic State fighters were combing through neighborhoods in search of government employees and pro-government tribal fighters and were conducting summary public executions.
The mayor of Ramadi, Mohammed Kubaisi, told McClatchy by phone that some government soldiers and police had withdrawn to a northern suburb in hopes of holding out until promised reinforcements from Baghdad arrive. But as of Saturday evening, despite claims by government officials in Baghdad that fresh troops had been deployed, no reinforcements had arrived and the Islamic State was operating freely in the area, the mayor said."
"But back to Iraq: the crucial thing to understand is that the invasion wasn’t a mistake, it was a crime. We were lied into war. And we shouldn’t let that ugly truth be forgotten."
---Paul Krugman, The New York Times, May 16, 2015
The Preakness Stakes in Baltimore: American Pharoah Wins 2nd Leg of the Triple Crown
"Islamic State militants drove security forces from a key military base in western Iraq on Sunday and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi authorized the deployment of Shi'ite paramilitaries to wrest back control of the mainly Sunni province.
Members of the security forces said they had withdrawn from the Anbar Operations Command after it came under attack by the insurgents, who have now trapped them in an area to the west of the city of Ramadi."
"A dozen years later, American politics has reached a rough consensus about the Iraq War: It was a mistake.
Politicians hoping to be president rarely run ahead of public opinion. So it's a revealing moment when the major contenders for president in both parties find it best to say that 4,491 Americans and countless Iraqis lost their lives in a war that shouldn't have been waged.
Many people have been saying that for years, of course. Polls show most of the public have judged the war a failure by now. Over time, more and more GOP politicians have allowed that the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq undermined Republican President George W. Bush's rationale for the 2003 invasion."
"Hundreds of police, soldiers and tribal fighters fled Ramadi on Sunday after Islamic State militants captured one of the last pro-government holdouts in the Iraqi city, police and tribesmen said.
The retreat appears to have dealt a blow to efforts announced by Iraqi officials to defend the city, capital of Iraq’s largest province, by sending military reinforcements to fight the advancing extremist group.
The pro-government forces retreated from the Malaab area of the city at 1:30 p.m., abandoning about 60 military vehicles, including military-grade Humvees, to the militants, said Col. Nasser al-Alwani of the Ramadi police force. About half of the abandoned vehicles were sent by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to reinforce the neighborhood Saturday, he added."
"Islamic State militants have made further gains in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, with reports of them taking a key military command centre.
Local officials have said the city is on the verge of falling, with army reinforcements unable to hold ground.
The prime minister called on troops not to abandon their posts, while telling Shia militias to prepare to deploy.
Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's largest province, Anbar, and is just 70 miles (112km) west of Baghdad.
Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP news agency that security forces had abandoned an operations command base on Saturday on the northern bank of the Euphrates."
"The contested city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group on Sunday, as Iraqi forces abandoned their weapons and armored vehicles to flee the provincial capital in a major loss despite intensified U.S.-led airstrikes.
Bodies, some burned, littered the streets as local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers gripping onto their sides. 'Ramadi has fallen,' said Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the governor of Anbar province. 'The city was completely taken. ... The military is fleeing.'
With defeat looming, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province, apparently fearing the extremists could capture the entire desert region that saw intense fighting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.
Sunday's retreat recalled the collapse of Iraqi security forces last summer in the face of the Islamic State group's blitz into Iraq that saw it capture a third of the country, where it has declared a caliphate, or Islamic State. It also calls into question the Obama administration's hopes of relying solely on airstrikes to support the Iraqi forces in expelling the extremists.
Earlier Sunday, al-Abadi ordered Shiite militias to prepare to go into the Sunni-dominated province, ignoring U.S. concerns their presence could spark sectarian bloodshed. By late Sunday, a large number of Shiite militiamen had arrived at a military base near Ramadi, apparently to participate in a possible counter-offensive, said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout."
"The last Iraqi security forces fled the provincial capital of Ramadi on Sunday, as the city fell completely to the militants of the Islamic State, who ransacked the provincial military headquarters, seizing a large store of weapons, and carried out executions of people loyal to the government, according to security officials and tribal leaders.
The fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State, despite intensified American airstrikes in recent weeks in a bid to save the city, represented the biggest victory so far this year for the extremist group, which has declared a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the vast areas of Syria and Iraq that it controls. The fall of Ramadi also laid bare the failed strategy of the Iraqi government, which had announced last month a new offensive to retake Anbar Province, a vast desert region in the west of which Ramadi is the capital.
'The city has fallen,' said Muhannad Haimour, the spokesman for Anbar’s governor. Mr. Haimour said that at least 500 civilians and security personnel had been killed over the last two days in and around Ramadi, either from fighting or executions. Among the dead, he said, was the 3-year-old daughter of a soldier."
"Iraqi security forces attempting to retake control of the western city of Ramadi were routed in heavy fighting Sunday, the worst defeat for Iraq’s central government since Islamic State militants stormed across the country last June.
In a replay of last year’s military debacle, elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area, leaving several hundred soldiers surrounded in the last government-held enclave in the city.
Multiple security sources, none of whom agreed to be identified, speaking from both within the besieged Anbar Operations Center as well as with the units fleeing the city, described the fight for control of the capital of Iraq’s largest province as essentially over after reinforcements sent on Saturday to retake the city were crushed by Islamic State fighters.
'Only God can save us,' said one officer speaking by phone from inside the Anbar operations center, where officers had been coordinating the operation. The officer said that several hundred policemen and soldiers were surrounded inside the command center, which was repeatedly struck by suicide bombers and heavy artillery fire as militants cut off their last routes of escape."
---McClatchy, May 17, 2015
Massacre in Waco, Texas: Nine Killed in Biker Gangs Clash
May 17, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of bikers in Waco, Texas, May 17, 2015
"Nine people were killed on Sunday when a simmering feud among rival biker gangs boiled over at a sports bar in Waco, Texas, resulting in gunfire and a full-blown battle in the parking lot, police said.
The clash took place at Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Grill in a shopping mall in the central Texas city, Waco police said. In addition to the fatalities, more than a dozen people were taken to area hospitals with injuries.
The fight, which involved members of at least three gangs, erupted shortly after noon and quickly escalated into a brawl involving clubs, knives, and chains, Waco Sgt. Patrick Swanton said. The fight may have been tied to a dispute over a parking spot, Swanton said.
When the bikers began shooting, officers moved in, some of them also discharging their weapons, the spokesman said in a televised press conference. When the shooting ended, bodies were scattered across two parking lots."
---Reuters, May 17, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Houston Astros 4, Toronto Blue Jays 2
May 17, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Houston Astros batter crossing home plate after hitting a home run versus the Toronto Blue Jays in Houston, Sunday, May 17, 2015
"A column of Shi'ite militia fighters arrived at a military base near Ramadi on Monday as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to Islamic State militants in the biggest defeat for the government since last summer.
The U.S.-led coalition stepped up air raids against the Islamists, conducting 19 strikes near Ramadi over the past 72 hours at the request of the Iraqi security forces, a coalition spokesman said.
The militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation, had been ordered to mobilize after the city, the capital of Anbar province, was overrun on Sunday.
The militiamen give the government far more capability to launch a counterattack, but their arrival could add to sectarian animosity in one of the most violent parts of Iraq."
"Islamic State militants likely killed up to 500 Iraqi civilians and soldiers and forced 8,000 people to flee from their homes as they captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi, a provincial official said Monday, while the extremists went door-to-door looking for policemen and pro-government tribesmen.
Iraq's government and Iranian-backed Shiite militias vowed to mount a counter-offensive and reclaim Ramadi, the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar province. Iran's Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan flew to Baghdad on a surprise visit for urgent talks with Iraqi leaders.
The fall of Ramadi was a stunning defeat for Iraq's security forces and military, which fled as the Islamic State extremists overwhelmed the last hold-out positions of pro-government forces, despite the support of U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the extremists. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers desperate to reach safety gripping onto their sides.
Since Friday, when the battle for the city entered its final stages, "we estimate that 500 people have been killed, both civilians and military," said a spokesman for the Anbar provincial government, Muhannad Haimour.
The figures could not be independently confirmed, but Islamic State militants have in the past killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers in the aftermath of their major victories.
Some 8,000 people fled the city, Haimour said. It was not immediately clear how many people remain in Ramadi — once a city of 850,000 that has been draining population for months amid fighting with the extremists besieging it. An enormous exodus took place in April, when the U.N. estimates some 114,000 residents streamed out of Ramadi and surrounding villages.
Bodies, some charred, were strewn in the streets or tossed into the Euphrates river, said Naeem al-Gauoud, a leader from the Sunni tribes that fought against IS in Ramadi.
Ramadi's streets were deserted Monday, with only few people venturing out of their homes to look for food, according to two residents reached by telephone."
"It has been apparent for some time that the United States lacks a strategy to fulfill President Obama’s pledge to 'degrade and ultimately destroy' the Islamic State since it has no plan to root out the terrorists’ base in Syria. There was hope, though, that Mr. Obama’s half-measures might be enough to blunt the Islamic State’s advances in Iraq, leaving the Syria problem for the next U.S. president. With the stunning fall of Ramadi on Sunday, even that modest optimism is questionable."
---Editorial Board, Washington Post, May 18, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Miami Marlins Select Dan Jennings as Manager
The Class of 2015: Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette, Alabama
May 18, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Baldwin County High School Class of 2015, Bay Minette, Alabama, May 18, 2015
Above: AL.com photo of a portion of the graduates of the Baldwin County High School Class of 2015, May 18, 2015; Baldwin County High School athletics logo
Above: AL.com photo of part of the crowd at the Baldwin County High graduation ceremony held in Bay Minette, Alabama on May 18, 2015
Above: AL.com photos of the Valedictorian (left) and Salutatorian (right) of Baldwin County High School's Class of 2015
Above: AL.com photo of the Baldwin County High School graduation ceremony in Bay Minette, Alabama, May 18, 2015
"Iraqi security forces on Tuesday deployed tanks and artillery around Ramadi to confront Islamic State fighters who have captured the city in a major defeat for the Baghdad government and its Western backers.
After Ramadi fell on Sunday, Shi'ite militiamen allied to the Iraqi army had advanced to a nearby base in preparation for a counterattack on the city, which lies in the Sunni Muslim province of Anbar, just 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
As pressure mounted for action to retake the city, a local government official urged Ramadi residents to join the police and the army for what the Shi'ite militiamen said would be the 'Battle of Anbar'.
The White House said a U.S.-led air campaign would back multi-sectarian Iraqi forces in their attempt to regain Ramadi, whose fall exposed the limits of U.S. airpower in its battle against the radical Sunni Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria."
U.S. military officials believe that the city of Ramadi fell to the self-proclaimed Islamic State over the weekend in large part because the Iraqi security forces there fled in the face of an ISIS assault.
The American strategy to fight ISIS in Iraq depends on local troops standing up to the terror army. That Iraqi forces chose not to fight—much as they did last year when ISIS sacked the city of Mosul—reinforced how little the U.S. effort has bolstered Iraq’s security. The Pentagon has said it trained 7,000 Iraqi forces since Mosul’s collapse and launched more than 3,700 airstrikes, hitting 6,300 targets. In the month leading to Ramadi’s collapse, the U.S.-led coalition conducted 165 airstrikes in Ramadi alone, according to military statistics. And yet, once again, the Iraqis could not mount a defense against a charging ISIS.
The 6,000 Iraqi forces—plagued with poor equipment, bad resupply chains, and low morale—saw a series of ISIS attacks and 8 to 12 car bombs hit in Ramadi sometime Friday. In response, those troops decided to retreat to a position a few miles east and north, U.S. defense officials believe. That is, once confronted, the troops fled the fight."
---Nancy A. Youssef, The Daily Beast, May 19, 2015
"Now, with Ramadi being overrun, many of the Sunni tribal leaders and fighters who might have helped the government in Anbar have been killed or have fled to other parts of the country, analysts say.
'The plan is looking like a failure,' said Ihsan al-Shamari, a political analyst who lives in Baghdad. 'Now the Sunnis are even more suspicious of the government, and now it will be even harder to get them to cooperate with a political system that they already deeply distrusted.'
A bloc of Sunni parties in the Iraqi parliament issued a statement Tuesday saying they 'blame the government' for Ramadi’s capture by the Islamic State. The bloc, called the National Forces Union, demanded an investigation and called on the government to send arms to Anbar and pay salaries to pro-government fighters in the province."
"The White House on Tuesday defended President Obama’s strategy for countering Islamic State militants in Iraq, arguing that while the group’s capture of the provincial capital of Ramadi had been a setback, it should not be taken as a broader sign that the American approach is failing.
As Mr. Obama assembled his national security team to discuss the latest developments in Iraq and how to retake Ramadi, the largest city in Anbar Province, administration officials said that Mr. Obama’s strategy of conducting airstrikes against the militants while relying on Iraqi forces to confront them on the ground had yielded gains."
---New York Times, May 19, 2015
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Closes at a Record High: 18,312
May 19, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a close of 18,312 on May 19, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 4, Texas Rangers 3
May 19, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox pitcher in action versus the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park in Boston on May 19, 2015; AP photo of Boston Red Sox batter David Ortiz hitting a home run versus the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park in Boston on May 19, 2015
"Islamic State militants seized parts of the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday after fierce clashes with government troops, renewing fears the extremist group would destroy the priceless archaeological site if it reaches the ruins.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants gained control of as much as a third of the town in heavy clashes during the day. Palmyra is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is famous for its 2,000-year-old majestic Roman colonnades.
The majority of the ruins are located in Palmyra's south, and the militants entered Wednesday from the north after seizing the state security building from government forces. But their presence has sparked concerns they would destroy the ruins as they have done with major archaeological sites in neighboring Iraq.
Following setbacks in both Syria and Iraq, Islamic State fighters appear to have gotten a second wind in recent days, capturing Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest Sunni province, and advancing in central Syria to the outskirts of Palmyra.
In Iraq, thousands of displaced people fleeing from Ramadi and the violence in the western Anbar province poured into Baghdad on Wednesday after the central government waived restrictions and granted them conditional entry, a provincial official said."
"Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense lines there collapsed Wednesday, a stunning triumph for the group only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.
It was unclear by nightfall how close to Palmyra's famed archaeological site the militants had advanced, activists said, adding that Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area.
The ruins at Palmyra are one of the world's most renowned historic sites and there were fears the extremists would destroy them as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq. The UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the 'Bride of the Desert.'
The fall of the town to the Islamic State group after a week of fighting was an enormous loss to the government, not only because of its cultural significance, but because it opens the way for the extremists to advance to key government-held areas, including Damascus and the Syrian coast to the south and southwest, as well as the contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour to the east.
Next to it are also important gas and oil fields in the country's central region."
---Associated Press, May 20, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Arizona Diamondbacks 6 , Miami Marlins 1
May 20, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of a Miami Marlins batter in action versus the Arizona Diamondbacks in Miami, Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Above: AP photo of David Lettermanduring the taping of the finale of Late Show with David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, Wednesday, May 20, 2015; Title image of Late Show with David Letterman
"There are those who will argue that the world of television hasn't suffered such a loss in nearly a generation, and they're right.
When David Letterman signed off CBS' 'Late Show' for good Wednesday, he closed the book on more than his own incomparable career in late night. He closed out a broadcasting epoch that also encompasses his mentor, "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, who retired with great emotion and ceremony in 1992. Dave also called it a day for Steve Allen and Jack Paar, who back in the 1950s broke ground as each took a turn as the host of 'Tonight.'
All that is part of Letterman's legacy — as well as a career-spanning total of 'eight minutes of laughter,' he cracked in his final monologue.
For anyone sad that Letterman is leaving the spotlight, he offered joking consolation, announcing that he and about-to-be-former bandleader Paul Shaffer would soon 'be debuting our new act at Caesars Palace with our white tigers.'
If only.
Dave's much-awaited finale was surprisingly unsurprising for such a momentous occasion. But it was clearly what Letterman wanted for himself: a wrapping up and an occasion to say thanks. He seemed to enjoy himself greatly in the process.
At the top of the show, he was showered with a two-minute standing ovation. Then some of his favorite celebs delivered the final Top Ten List. He presented a sampling of vintage clips, and a new filmed segment displayed a day in the life of Dave doing 'Late Show' — fun, even instructive, if an odd idea since this is no longer the way Dave's day will go.
Near the end of the show, Letterman voiced appreciation for all the praise and tributes, 'merited or not,' directed at him recently, but added, 'Do me a favor: Save a little for my funeral.'"
---Associated Press, May 21, 2015
ISIS in Control of Ancient Ruins Near Palmyra, Syria
May 21, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo (released May 17, 2015) via Syrian Government of Roman ruins near Palmyra, Syria
Above: CNN map of the territorial prevalence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq as of May 21, 2015
"Islamic State militants overran the famed archaeological site at Palmyra early on Thursday, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, activists and officials said, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighboring Iraq.
The Islamic State's capture of the town of Palmyra late Wednesday was a stunning triumph for the militant group, only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq's largest Sunni province.
As IS took Palmyra, government forces collapsed in the face of the attacks and Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area, activists said. In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from the town.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the extremists overrun the archaeological site, just to the southwest of the town itself, shortly after midnight Wednesday.
An activist in Homs who goes by the name of Bebars al-Talawy also confirmed that IS now controls the ruins at Palmyra."
---Associated Press, May 21, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago Cubs 3, San Diego Padres 0
May 21, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of Chicago Cubs pitcher in Major League Baseball action versus the San Diego Padres in San Diego, Thursday, May 21, 2015
"Islamic state fighters pressed an advance east of Ramadi on Friday after breaching Iraqi defenses outside the city the insurgents overran last weekend in a major defeat for the Baghdad government.
The fall of Ramadi is the most significant setback for Iraqi forces in almost a year and has cast doubt on the effectiveness of U.S. strategy in helping Iraq to fight Islamic State.
While pro-government forces are seeking to retake the town, Islamic State fighters have been pushing forward in the direction of Fallujah in a bid to take more territory in Anbar province that would bring them closer to the Iraqi capital.
Amir al-Fahdawi, a leader of the pro-government Sunni tribal force in the area, said the militants were now around 5 km (3 miles) from the town of Khalidiya next to the Habbaniya military base where security forces and members of the Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) Shi'ite militia are massing."
---Reuters, May 22, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago White Sox 3, Minnesota Twins 2
May 22, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of a Chicago White Sox batter in action versus the Minnesota Twins in Chicago, Friday, May 22, 2015
"A convoy of Shi'ite Muslim militia and Iraqi army forces set out from a base near Ramadi on Saturday to advance on areas held by Islamic State, a Shi'ite spokesman said, launching a counter-offensive to reverse stunning gains by the jihadi insurgents.
The fall of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, to Islamic State on May 17 could be a shattering blow to Baghdad's weak central government. The Sunni Muslim jihadis now control most of Anbar and could threaten the western approaches to Baghdad, or even surge south into Iraq's Shi’ite heartland.
Ramadi's loss is the most serious setback for Iraqi forces in almost a year and has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the U.S. strategy of air strikes to help Baghdad roll back Islamic State, which holds a third each of Iraq and adjacent Syria.
Anbar provincial council member Azzal Obaid said hundreds of Shi'ite fighters, who had arrived at the Habbaniya air base last week after Islamic State took Ramadi, deployed into Khalidiya on Saturday and were approaching Siddiqiya and Madiq, towns in contested territory near Ramadi.
Disadvantaged by poor morale and cohesion among his security forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shi'ite, sent Shi'ite paramilitary groups to try to retake Ramadi despite the risk of inflaming tensions with Anbar's aggrieved, predominantly Sunni population."
White Cleveland, Ohio Police Officer Acquitted in Lethal Shooting of Two Black Suspects
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photos of Cleveland, Ohio police officer Michael Brelo reacting to the announcement of the verdict that acquitted him, Saturday, May 23, 2015
Above: AP photo of Timothy Russell (left) and Malissa Williams (right), the two people shot to death in a barrage of police gunfire on November 29, 2015
"A Cleveland police officer was found not guilty on Saturday in the shooting deaths of an unarmed black man and a woman after a high-speed car chase in 2012, one in a series of cases that have raised questions over police conduct and race relations in the United States.
Judge John O'Donnell said Officer Michael Brelo, 31, acted reasonably in shooting the two suspects while standing on the hood of their surrounded car and firing multiple rounds through the windshield. Brelo, who was among a group of officers who fired on the car, was found not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
The trial, which began on April 6, took place at a time when U.S. law enforcement is under close scrutiny for the use of lethal force against minority groups. It followed a series of high-profile deaths of unarmed black men in confrontations with police officers, which have prompted sometimes violent demonstrations.
The two people who were killed, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, were black and Brelo, a former Marine, is white."
"Irish voters backed legalizing gay marriage by a landslide, according to electoral figures announced Saturday — a stunning result that illustrates the rapid social change taking place in this traditionally Catholic nation.
Figures from Friday's referendum announced at Dublin Castle showed that 62.1 percent of Irish voters said 'yes.' Outside, watching the results announcement live in the castle's cobblestoned courtyard, thousands of gay rights activists cheered, hugged and cried.
The unexpectedly strong percentage of approval surprised both sides. Analysts and campaigners credited the 'yes' side with adeptly using social media to mobilize first-time young voters and for a series of searing personal stories from Irish gay people to convince voters to back equal marriage rights.
Ireland is the first country to approve gay marriage in a popular national vote. Nineteen other countries have legalized the practice."
"Ireland became the first nation to approve same-sex marriageby a popular vote, sweeping aside the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church in a resounding victory Saturday for the gay rights movement and placing the country at the vanguard of social change.
With the final ballots counted, the vote was 62 percent in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and 38 percent opposed."
---New York Times, May 23, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cleveland Indians 2, Cincinnati Reds 1
May 23, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Cincinnati Reds player attempting to field a ball in a Major League Baseball game versus the Cleveland Indians on May 23, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Miami Marlins 1, Baltimore Orioles 0
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of Miami Marlins manager Dan Jennings prior to the start of the Major League Baseball game between Miami and the Baltimore Orioles, Saturday, May 23, 2015; AP photo of Miami Marlins batter Martin Prado in action versus the Baltimore Orioles in Miami, Saturday, May 23, 2015
Above: AP photo of a Miami Marlins player scoring the winning run in the 13th inning versus the Baltimore Orioles in Miami, Saturday, May 23, 2015; AP photo of Miami Marlins players celebrating the Miami victory over Baltimore, Saturday, May 23, 2015
"Iraqi forces recaptured territory from advancing Islamic State militants near the recently-fallen city of Ramadi on Sunday, while in Syria the government said the Islamists had killed hundreds of people since capturing the town of Palmyra.
The fall of Ramadi and Palmyra, on opposite ends of the vast territory controlled by Islamic State fighters, were the militant group's biggest successes since a U.S.-led coalition launched an air war to stop them last year.
The near simultaneous victories against the Iraqi and Syrian armies have forced Washington to examine its strategy, which involves bombing from the air but leaving fighting on the ground to local forces in both countries.
In a sharp criticism of Washington's ally, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter accused Iraq's army of abandoning Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad, to a much smaller enemy force.
'The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,' he told CNN's State of the Union program. 'They vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they withdrew from the site.'
Iraq's government, along with Iran-backed Shi'ite militiamen and locally-recruited Sunni tribal fighters, launched a counter-offensive on Saturday, a week after losing Ramadi. A police major and a pro-government Sunni tribal fighter in the area said they had retaken the town of Husaiba al-Sharqiya, about 10 km (6 miles) east of Ramadi."
---Reuters, May 24, 2015
In a CNN Interview, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Ripped the Performance of Iraqi Security Forces
May 24, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter; CNN map and graphic regarding Secretary of Defense Ash Carter's comments about the Iraqi Defense Forces at Ramadi
"The Islamic State group's takeover of the provincial capital Ramadi is stark evidence that Iraqi forces lack the 'will to fight,' Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a TV interview that aired Sunday. The harsh assessment raised new questions about the Obama administration's strategy to defeat the extremist group that has seized a strategically important swath of the Middle East.
Although Iraqi soldiers 'vastly outnumbered' their opposition in the capital of Anbar province, they quickly withdrew last Sunday without putting up much resistance from the city in Iraq's Sunni heartland, Carter said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' The interview aired on Sunday.
The Iraqis left behind large numbers of U.S.-supplied vehicles, including several tanks, now presumed to be in Islamic State hands.
'What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,' Carter said. 'They were not outnumbered; in fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves.'
The White House declined to comment on Sunday.
Iraqi lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the parliamentary defense and security committee, called Carter's comments 'unrealistic and baseless,' in an interview with The Associated Press.
'The Iraqi army and police did have the will to fight IS group in Ramadi, but these forces lack good equipment, weapons and aerial support,' said al-Zamili, a member of the political party headed by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is stridently anti-American.
American officials say they are sending anti-tank weapons to the Iraqi military. But they also noted that Iraqi forces were not routed from Ramadi— they left of their own accord, frightened in part by a powerful wave of Islamic State group suicide truck bombs, some the size of the one that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City two decades ago, said a senior State Department official who spoke to reporters last week under ground rules he not be named.
'The ISF was not driven out of Ramadi,' Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week. 'They drove out of Ramadi.'"
"A summer of stalemate in the effort to reclaim the Iraqi provincial capital of Ramadi, despite U.S.-backed Iraqi troops vastly outnumbering Islamic State fighters, calls into question not only Iraq's ability to win a test of wills over key territory but also the future direction of Washington's approach to defeating the extremist group.
The Ramadi standoff, with no immediate prospect of an Iraqi assault on the city, drags on even as the U.S. prepares to makeover its approach to countering IS in Syria and congressional Republicans cite Ramadi as evidence of a failed American strategy. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a leading critic, says it's clear the U.S. is not winning, 'and if you're not winning in this kind of warfare, you are losing.'
The Obama administration insists patience will pay off, even in Ramadi, where in May, IS won control against a much larger Iraqi force, shattering claims by U.S. military officials that the group was on the defensive across Iraq."
---Associated Press, September 26, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 6, Los Angeles Angels 1
May 24, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox batter in action versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Sunday, May 24, 2015
"Islamic State poured more fighters into Ramadi on Monday as security forces and Shi'ite paramilitaries renewed efforts to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to the Islamists a week ago in a major setback for the government.
In Palmyra, the Syrian air force launched strikes at buildings captured by Islamic State, whose occupation of the city has raised fears that the insurgents will destroy its famed Roman ruins.
Islamic state has killed at least 217 people execution-style, including children, since it moved into the Palmyra area 10 days ago, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A further 300 soldiers were killed in fighting before the city was captured, according to the monitoring group.
Islamic State reinforced Ramadi on Monday, deploying fighters in preparation for battle against security forces and paramilitary groups advancing on the provincial capital.
Iraqi forces have regained ground east of the city since launching a counter-offensive on Saturday, a week after it was overrun by the insurgents, and on Monday retook a rural area south of the city."
---Reuters, May 25, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Iraqi Pushback Against Ash Carter's Comments
May 25, 2015 (Monday)
Above: U.S. Secretary of State Ash Carter; CNN map and graphic regarding Secretary of Defense Ash Carter's cutting comments about the performance of Iraqi Security Forces during ISIS conquest of the city of Ramadi
"Iraq and Iran pushed back Monday against U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's criticisms over the fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State group, with an Iranian general going as far as saying America had 'no will' to fight the extremists.
In Baghdad, a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister suggested Carter had 'incorrect information,' while Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds forces in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, offered his own assessment of American forces.
The war of words over the loss of Ramadi, amid other gains by the Islamic State group in recent days, lay bare the fissures among countries that have become allies of convenience against the militants. And as Iraqi troops continue to flee their advance, governments across the world are questioning whether relying on Iraqi troops and militiamen on the ground alone will be enough to stop them.
The criticism began Sunday, when Carter told CNN's 'State of the Union' news show that Iraqi forces 'vastly outnumbered' the Islamic State group, but still 'showed no will to fight' and fled their advance on Ramadi.
On Monday, Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said his government was surprised by Carter's comments.
'Carter was likely given incorrect information because the situation on ground is different," al-Hadithi told The Associated Press. "We should not judge the whole army based on one incident.'
Al-Hadithi said the Iraqi government believes the fall of Ramadi was due to mismanagement and poor planning by some senior military commanders in charge. However, he did not elaborate, nor has any action been taken against those commanders.
In Iran, the daily newspaper Javan, which is seen as close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted Soleimani as saying the U.S. didn't do a 'damn thing' to stop the extremists' advance on Ramadi."
"What accounts for the Iraqi military’s failure? Many problems stem from the Bush Administration decision to disband the existing Iraq military in 2003 and build a new one from scratch. Intended to rid the institution of officers linked to Saddam Hussein, the move instead left thousands of armed men unemployed and embittered. This contributed to a security vacuum within Iraqi society and fed a vicious anti-U.S. insurgency. Many high-ranking officials who served under Saddam have now become senior commanders with ISIS.
The Iraqi army is also notoriously corrupt, a legacy of Nouri al-Maliki’s years as prime minister. Fearful that a strong military would pose a threat to his power, al-Maliki replaced top commanders with political patrons drawn from his Shia sect, undermining any attempt to establish a merit-based system of promotion. So-called 'ghost battalions' draw salaries despite never reporting for duty, and the forces who do remain are no match for fanatical ISIS fighters. 'Military training, no matter how intensive, and weaponry, no matter how sophisticated and powerful, is no substitute for belief in a cause,' William Astore, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, wrote last year in the American Conservative."
---The Atlantic, May 25, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: New York Yankees 14, Kansas City Royals 1
May 25, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of a New York Yankees pitcher in action versus the Kansas City Royals in New York, Monday, May 25, 2015
"Iraq vowed Tuesday to retake Anbar province — now mostly held by the Islamic State — by launching a large-scale military operation less than two weeks after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the extremists in the provincial capital of Ramadi.
The operation, which Iraqi state TV said was backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, is deemed critical in regaining momentum in the fight.
But as a sandstorm descended across the region, there was no sign of any major engagement against the extremists, who have been gaining ground in the province west of Baghdad despite U.S.-led airstrikes.
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said Iraqi forces have begun 'shaping operations' and 'security zone interactions,' which he described as probing and reconnaissance actions that would precede any major combat in or around Ramadi.
The Iraqis have begun moving forward from their base at Habbaniyah, and IS fighters likewise are probing in the direction of Habbaniyah, Warren said. He added that he could not confirm that the Iraqi forces have surrounded Ramadi."
"Iraqi officials said Tuesday that a combined force of Iraqi soldiers and allied Shiite militias had started moving to retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, from Islamic State fighters.
The officials billed the operation that began Tuesday as the start of a major offensive to liberate all of Anbar Province. But most of the action reported on Tuesday involved pro-government forces maneuvering in the desert areas north and east of Ramadi, and it was unclear when an assault there might begin."
---New York Times, May 26, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 1, Oakland A's 0
May 26, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of pitchers for the Detroit Tigers (left) and the Oakland Athletics (right) in action in a Major League Baseball game played in Oakland, California, Tuesday, May 26, 2015
"Islamic State extremists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland, an Iraqi military spokesman said Wednesday.
The attacks came just hours after the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced the start of a wide-scale operation to recapture areas under the control of the IS group in Anbar.
Brig. Gen Saad Maan Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, told The Associated Press the attacks took place outside the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah late Tuesday night.
The militants struck near a water control station and a lock system on a canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River where army forces have been deployed for the Anbar offensive, he said.
Ibrahim added that the Islamic State extremists used a sandstorm that engulfed most of Iraq on Tuesday night to launch the deadly wave of bombings. He said it was not clear how many suicide attackers were involved in the bombings but they hit the military from multiple directions.
Last month, the water station near Fallujah fell into the hands of Islamic State militants — following attacks that also included multiple suicide bombings and that killed a general commanding the 1st Division and a dozen other officers and soldiers, he said.
Iraqi government forces recaptured the station a few days later. Fallujah lies to the east of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, which was captured by the Islamic State militants nearly two weeks ago in what was a major, humiliating defeat for Iraqi troops at the hands of the extremists."
"Is there hope for Iraq? It depends on what you are hoping for.
It is becoming clearer that there is little hope of destroying Islamic State in Iraq. Islamic State has no shortage of new recruits. Its fighters capture heavy weapons with such ease that the United States is forced to direct air strikes against equipment abandoned by the Iraqis — even as it ships in more. Islamic State holds territory that will allow it to trade land for time, morph into an insurgency and preserve its forces by pulling back into Syrian territory it controls even if Iraq’s government, with Iranian and American help, launches a major assault.
Islamic State maintains support among Iraq’s Sunnis. The more the Shi’ites align against it, the more Sunnis see no other choice but to support Islamic State, as they did al Qaeda after the American invasion in 2003. Stories from Tikrit, where Shi’ite militia-led forces defeated Islamic State, describe 'a ghost town ruled by gunmen.' There are other reports of ethnic cleansing in the Euphrates Valley town of Jurf al-Sakhar. Absent a unified Iraq, there will always be an al Qaeda, an Islamic State or another iteration of it to defend the Sunnis.
The only way for Iraq to remain unified was a stalemate of force, with no side having the might to win nor weak enough to lose, with negotiations to follow. As the United States passively watched the Iranians become its proxy boots on the ground against Islamic State, all the while knowing Tehran’s broader agenda was a Shi’ite Iraqi client, that possibility was lost.
It’s possible to pin down the failure to a single battle. The last hope that Iraq would not become an Iranian client was dashed after Islamic State’s defeat in Tikrit. The victory triggered the Iraqi central government to dismiss American and Kurdish support for a drive toward strategically important Mosul. The government all but abandoned the idea of a nonsectarian national army; it turned instead to a gang of Iranian-supported Shi’ite militias with a bundle of anti-Sunni agendas. Baghdad pointed those forces toward Ramadi."
---Peter Van Buren, Reuters, May 27, 2015
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum Announces his Candidacy for President
May 27, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photos of former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum during his presidential candidacy announcement event in Cabot, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, May 27, 2015
"Conservative culture warrior Rick Santorum launched a 2016 White House bid on Wednesday, vowing to fight for working-class Americans in a new election season that will test his influence — and focus on social issues — in a changing Republican Party."
---Associated Press, May 27, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Baltimore Orioles 5, Houston Astros 4
May 27, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of Major League Baseball action between the Baltimore Orioles and the Houston Astros, Wednesday, May 27, 2015
"George Pataki, the 9/11-era New York governor who achieved electoral success as a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination Thursday, offering himself as a unifying figure in a divided nation."
---Associated Press, May 28, 2015
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, Indicted on Federal Charges
May 28, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Portrait of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois;AP photo of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, in 2007
"Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted on Thursday on federal charges, including for lying to the FBI, relating to an alleged effort to hide $3.5 million in payments to a person to conceal past misconduct.
The Illinois Republican, who left office in 2007, was charged with structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000, and lying to the FBI about his withdrawals, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said.
Each count of the two-count indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Hastert, 73, was not available for comment, according to his office at the Dickstein Shapiro law firm in Washington where he is listed as a senior adviser.
According to the indictment, the unspecified misconduct involved payments to an unnamed individual who had been a Yorkville, Illinois, resident and had known Hastert for most of the person's life."
"Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about 'prior misconduct' by the Illinois Republican who was once third in line to the U.S. presidency, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down on Thursday in Chicago.
The indictment, which does not describe the misconduct Hastert was allegedly trying to conceal, charges the 73-year-old with one count of evading bank regulations as he withdrew tens of thousands of dollars at a time to make the payments. He is also charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual bank withdrawals.
Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Associated Press left a phone message seeking comment with a person at Hastert's Washington, D.C., office. It was not immediately returned. Hastert did not immediately return a message left on his cellphone seeking comment, or respond to an email.
Hastert withdrew a total of around $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts from 2010 to 2014, and then provided it to the person identified in the indictment only as Individual A. Hastert allegedly agreed to pay the person $3.5 million, but never apparently paid that full amount.
The indictment notes Hastert was a high school teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981 in suburban Yorkville, about 50 miles west of Chicago. While the indictment says Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville and has known Hastert most of his life, it doesn't describe their relationship."
---Associated Press, May 28, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 5, Texas Rangers 1
May 28, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox pitcher in Major League Baseball action against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, Thursday, May 28, 2015
"Insurgents who captured the last government-held town in Syria's Idlib province celebrated inside on Friday and made more advances in surrounding areas, in a further blow to the stretched army and allied militia.
The 'Army of Fatah' alliance which includes al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group and other factions, captured Ariha town on Thursday night as the Syrian military pulled back.
The army has lost large parts of the northwestern province to insurgents since late March, when the provincial capital fell to Army of Fatah, a name which refers to Islamic conquest.
The recent advances have brought insurgents closer to the coastal Latakia province, President Bashar al-Assad's ancestral homeland and an area of importance to his government.
The army and allied militia have increasingly focused on defending Syria's western flank which includes Latakia, Homs city and Damascus further south.
By Friday the insurgents had advanced further, capturing at least four villages close to Ariha in heavy clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and social media accounts linked to groups in the alliance reported."
---Reuters, May 29, 2015
The United States Drops Cuba From List of Nations Considered to be Sponsors of Terrorism
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, Reportedly Sought to Conceal Alleged Sexual Misconduct with a Male Student
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: Portrait of Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the United States House of Representative, 1999-2007; Politico.com photo of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (upper right) standing behind President George W. Bush and next to Vice President Dick Cheney during the State of the Union address on January 29, 2002
"Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying an individual from his past to conceal sexual misconduct, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.
One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said 'Individual A,' as the person is described in Thursday’s federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said."
"J. Dennis Hastert, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, was paying a man to not say publicly that Mr. Hastert had sexually abused him decades ago, according to two people briefed on the evidence uncovered in an F.B.I. investigation into the payments.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced the indictment of Mr. Hastert on allegations that he made cash withdrawals designed to hide those payments and for lying to federal authorities about the purpose of the withdrawals.
The man — who was not identified in court papers — told the F.B.I. that he had been inappropriately touched by Mr. Hastert when Mr. Hastert was a high school teacher and wrestling coach, the two people said on Friday. The people briefed on the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a federal investigation."
"Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert was trying to cover up decades-old allegations that he sexually molested a male victim to whom he recently paid hush money in violation of federal banking laws, according to a federal law enforcement official briefed on the case.
Hastert’s suspected misconduct dates back to a time when he was a teacher and coach in Illinois before entering politics in the early 1980s, the official said. Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker in House history, is not expected to face any charges relating to the alleged misconduct because authorities don’t believe they have enough corroborating evidence to bring a case against him.
A federal grand jury in Chicago on Friday indicted the former speaker on charges that he violated banking laws in a bid to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed person to cover up 'past misconduct.' The male victim is that person, the official said."
"Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid hush money to conceal claims that the Illinois Republican sexually molested someone decades ago, a person familiar with the allegations said Friday."
"Federal authorities have interviewed at least two victims of sexual misconduct in the case against former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The longest-serving GOP speaker allegedly paid hush money to cover up sexual misconduct with one male student dating to his time as a coach and teacher in Yorkville, the source said.
The source said federal investigators identified, then interviewed, at least one other alleged victim in the case against Hastert. The second victim’s statements to investigators were critical to corroborating allegations of past sexual misconduct, the source said. There was no allegation of a financial relationship involving the second individual, the source said."
"The Sept. 11 attacks — and the possibility that the Capitol itself was a target of Flight 93 that was brought down by passengers in Pennsylvania — turned Mr. Hastert into a hard-line conservative on national security issues, and he happily and aggressively pressed President Bush’s agenda on antiterrorism measures and the Iraq war.
But public dissatisfaction with the war eventually took its toll as Democrats pushed their case with increasing success against a House Republican regime that was becoming exhausted both ethically and legislatively by 2006. The final straw that year was the uproar that followed disclosures that Representative Mark Foley of Florida had sent sexually suggestive messages to underage House pages.
Mr. Hastert and his inner circle were seen as not taking appropriate steps despite warnings of the activities of Mr. Foley and the furor in the final days before the November 2006 elections sealed the fate of both House Republicans and Mr. Hastert. He was re-elected to his own seat but dropped out of the leadership and took up residence in a private office in the Capitol, counting off the days until his retirement and a big-money lobbying career.
Now he is enmeshed in his own scandal, facing felony charges, public scrutiny and difficult questions about his behavior. There may be no good Hastert rule for dealing with all that."
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Miami Marlins 4, New York Mets 3
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of Miami Marlins manager Dan Jennings prior to the start of the Major League Baseball game between the Marlins and the New York Mets in New York, Friday, May 29, 2015; AP photo of a Miami Marlins batter in action versus the New York Mets in New York, Friday, May 29, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: San Francisco Giants 4, Atlanta Braves 2
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Hudson in Major League Baseball action versus the Atlanta Braves in San Francisco, Friday, May 29, 2015
Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Declares his Candidacy for President
May 30, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaking during his presidential candidacy announcement event in Baltimore, Saturday, May 30, 2015
"Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley entered the Democratic presidential race on Saturday in a longshot challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2016 nomination, casting himself as a new generation leader who would rebuild the economy and reform Wall Street."
---Associated Press, May 30, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 8, Washington Nationals 5
May 30, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of a Cincinnati Reds pitcher in Major League Baseball action versus the Washington Nationals in Cincinnati, Saturday, May 30, 2015
"A Christian college in suburban Chicago has removed the name of former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert from an academic research center.
Wheaton College announced Sunday that what had been known as the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy is now just named after the school.
The center was established in 2007 when Hastert stepped down from Congress after eight years as speaker."
"The alma mater of J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, announced on Sunday that it had scrubbed his name from the school’s public policy center, after his indictment on charges that he lied to the F.B.I. about financial transactions he made to cover up past sexual misconduct.
Wheaton College, the Christian liberal arts school in Illinois where Mr. Hastert graduated in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, made the decision after his federal indictment on Thursday.
Prosecutors and investigators said Mr. Hastert, 73, made cash withdrawals from banks in a way that was designed to hide that he was paying $3.5 million to conceal the misconduct, according to the indictment. Officials familiar with the case said he was paying a former student to keep quiet about sexual abuse, which went back decades to Mr. Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Ill."
---New York Times, May 31, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 8, Washington Nationals 2
May 31, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Cincinnati Reds player sliding as a Washington Nationals player awaits a throw in Major League Baseball action in Cincinnati, Sunday, May 31, 2015
May 2015
Charges Filed Against Six Baltimore Police Officers in the Death of Freddie Gray
May 1, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photos of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore addressing media on Friday, May 1, 2015
Above: AP photos of people in Baltimore, Maryland celebrating the announcement that six Baltimore police officers had been charged with various crimes in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, Friday, May 1, 2015
Above: AP map and graphic pertaining to the arrest and mortal injury of Freddie Gray on April 12, 2015; AP composite photo of the six Baltimore police officers charged with crimes pertaining to the arrest, injury, and death of Freddie Gray, Friday, May 1, 2015
Associated Press: Six Baltimore Police Officers Charged in the Killing of Freddie Gray
"Saying 'no one is above the law,' Baltimore's top prosecutor announced charges Friday against six officers involved in the arrest of a black man whose neck was broken in police custody, a decision that comes amid outrage around the country over police brutality against African-Americans.
State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby declared that Freddie Gray's death was a homicide, his arrest was illegal, and his treatment amounted to murder and manslaughter. She detailed what happened to Gray during his arrest and the more than 30-minute ride in a police wagon, her outline either contradicting what police have said or shedding far more light on what happened inside the wagon.
Gray's knife was legal, not illegal as an officer claimed. And officers repeatedly refused to get Gray medical help, even though he kept asking for it, telling them he needed an inhaler and later that he couldn't breathe. At one point, he was shackled at the legs and put back in the wagon on his stomach. At another stop, an officer 'spoke to the back of Mr. Gray's head,' and even though he was unresponsive, made 'no effort to look or assess or determine his condition.'
'The findings of our comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, coupled with the medical examiner's determination that Mr. Gray's death was a homicide,' Mosby said, 'has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges.'
Onlookers cheered and expressed amazement over Mosby's announcement, which few expected so quickly. The city, which saw looting and businesses and cars burned on Monday, was still under a nighttime curfew and National Guard troops and police were out in full force. More than 200 people have been arrested and police said nearly 100 officers were injured.
As Mosby spokes on the steps of the War Memorial Building, cheers and shouts of 'Justice!' erupted. Mosby announced the charges one day after receiving the results of the internal police investigation and the autopsy report. As she spoke, the city braced for huge protests Friday and Saturday."
---Associated Press, May 1, 2015
Salon: Conservative Attacks on Marilyn Mosby Baltimore Sun: Police Union Calls for Mosby to Recuse Herself
Rioters and Local Businesses The Atlantic: Charges Brought in the Death of Freddie Gray, May 1, 2015
"Freddie Gray was murdered by police after an unlawful arrest, the Baltimore City state's attorney said Friday.
In a press conference, prosecutor Marilyn Mosby announced 28 charges against all six officers involved in Gray's arrest, for crimes ranging from second-degree murder to manslaughter to misconduct. Somewhat unexpectedly, Mosby chose to file the charges herself rather than seeking an indictment from a grand jury, a move that expedites the process but means that her characterization of events has not been subjected to any external review."
---The Atlantic, May 1, 2015
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Gained 183 Points and Closed Above 18,000
May 1, 2015 (Friday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 183 points, closing at 18,024 on May 1, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: New York Mets 4, Washington Nationals 0
May 1, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey in a Major League Baseball game versus the Washington Nationals in New York, Friday, May 1, 2015
New York Mets 4, Washington Nationals 0 Chicago Cubs 1, Milwaukee Brewers 0
Miami Marlins 4, Philadelphia Phillies 3
American Pharoah (sic) Wins the Kentucky Derby
May 2, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of American Pharoah (sic) winning the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Saturday, May 2, 2015
Associated Press: American Pharoah Wins the Kentucky Derby, May 2, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 2, Kansas City Royals 1
May 2, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of Detroit Tigers pitcher David Price in Major League Baseball action versus the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Saturday, May 2, 2015
Detroit 2, Kansas City 1
Expensive Boxing Match in Las Vegas: Floyd Mayweather Defeated Manny Pacquiao in Unanimous Decision
May 2, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of Floyd Mayweather punching Manny Pacquiao with his left, Las Vegas, Saturday, May 2, 2015
Mayweather Wins, May 2, 2015
The pressure of a $180 million payday never got to Floyd Mayweather Jr., even if the richest fight ever wasn't the best.
Using his reach and his jab Saturday night, Mayweather frustrated Manny Pacquiao, piling up enough points to win a unanimous decision in their welterweight title bout. Mayweather remained unbeaten in 48 fights, cementing his legacy as the best of his generation.
---Associated Press, May 3, 2015
Small Contingent of Arab Coalition Troops Enter Yemen
May 3, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Associated Press map pertaining to the political and social chaos in Yemen
Associated Press: Arab Coalition Sends Small Force into Yemen, May 3, 2015
"With helicopter gunships hovering overhead, at least 20 troops from a Saudi-led Arab coalition, including Yemeni expatriates, came ashore Sunday in the southern port city of Aden on what military officials called a 'reconnaissance' mission, as fighting raged between Iranian-backed Shiite rebels and forces loyal to the nation's exiled president.
The landing was the first of its kind since the start of the Saudi-led air campaign against the rebels and their allies — forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh — who have captured most of northern Yemen and marched on southern provinces over the past year.
The objective of the landing was not immediately clear, but Yemeni military officials said the coalition troops would attempt to better organize and train forces loyal to the country's internationally recognized leader, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, as well as identify an area that could serve as a 'green zone' from which Hadi and his government could operate when they return to Yemen."
---Associated Press, May 3, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit 6, Kansas City 4
May 3, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Detroit Tigers pitcher versus the Kansas City Royals in Major League Baseball action in Kansas City, Sunday, May 3, 2015
Above: AP photos of Major League Baseball action, the first being the Baltimore Orioles versus the Tampa Bay Rays, the second being the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, May 3, 2015
Detroit 6, Kansas City 4 Baltimore 4, Tampa Bay 2
Houston 7, Seattle 6 St. Louis 3, Pittsburgh 2
Gunmen Attempt Assault at Anti-Islam Event Near Dallas, Texas
May 3, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of right-wing activist Pamela Geller, president of Stop Islamization of America, at the American Defense Initiative even in Garland, Texas, May 3, 2015; AP photo of a Garland, Texas police vehicle on Sunday evening, May 3, 2015
Associated Press: Gunmen Attempt to Assault an Anti-Islam Event in Garland, Texas, May 3, 3015
"Two gunmen were killed Sunday after opening fire on a security officer outside a provocative contest for cartoon depictions of Prophet Muhammad in Texas and a bomb squad was called in to search their vehicle as a precaution, authorities said.
The men drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland as the contest was scheduled to end and began shooting at a security officer, the City of Garland said in a statement. Garland police officers returned fire, killing the men."
---Associated Press, May 4, 2015
2016 Presidential Election: Physician Ben Carson and Former CEO Carly Florina Announce Candidacies
May 4, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Dr. Ben Carson (left) and Carly Florina (right)
FiveThirtyEight.com: Ben Carson and Carly Florina
2015 Major League Baseball Season: St. Louis Cardinals 10, Chicago Cubs 9
May 4, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of St. Louis batter Mark Reynolds rounding the bases after hitting a grand slam home run versus the Chicago Cubs, May 4, 2015
St. Louis Cardinals 10, Chicago Cubs 9
2016 Presidential Election: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee Announces GOP Candidacy
May 5, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in Hope, Arkansas, May 5, 2015
Associated Press: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee Announces GOP Bid for the Presidency, May 5, 2015
"The other man from Hope is running for president again.
Declaring Tuesday that he can bring 'the kind of change that truly can get America from hope to higher ground,' former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced his Republican candidacy in the hometown he shares with former President Bill Clinton.
Though they share roots in Hope, Huckabee is pitching himself as the best Republican to take on Bill's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the dominant Democrat in the 2016 race."
---Associated Press, May 5, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 7, Pittsburgh Pirates 1
May 5, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of Cincinnati Reds batter Marlon Byrd running the bases upon hitting a home run versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, May 5, 2015
Reds 7, Pirates 1
Investigation: New England Patriots' Employees Likely Guilty in Deflategate
May 6, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the AFC Championship Game versus the Indianapolis, January 18, 2015; AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during a press conference on January 22, 2015
Investigation: New England Patriots' Employees Probably Guilty in Deflategate
"Tom Brady: Unbelievable.
The 243-report on 'Deflategate' came out Wednesday and stopped barely short of calling the Patriots star quarterback a cheater. It did, however, call some of his claims 'implausible' and left little doubt that he had a role in having footballs deflated before New England's AFC title game against Indianapolis in January and probably in previous games.
In his report, attorney Ted Wells said the quarterback 'was at least generally aware' of all the plans to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch. Wells said it was 'more probable than not' that two Patriots employees — officials' locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski — executed the plan."
---Associated Press, May 6, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago Cubs 6, St. Louis Cardinals 5
May 6, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of Chicago Cubs batter Anthony Rizzo running the bases upon hitting a home run versus the St. Louis Cardinals on May 6, 2015
Chicago Cubs 6, St. Louis Cardinals 5
Parliamentary Elections in Great Britain: The Conservative Party Won a Majority, and David Cameron Remains Prime Minister
May 7-8, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of British Prime Minister David Cameron and wife returning to 10 Downing Street in London in the wake of the Conservative Party's electoral victory, Friday, May 8, 2015
New York Times: A Pre-Results Primer on the 2015 British Parliamentary Elections
Associated Press: David Cameron and the Conservatives win Big in Great Britain Parliamentary Elections
"After years of sharing power, David Cameron pulled off an unexpected election triumph that gave the Conservative prime minister a second term with an outright majority Friday and dealt a stinging defeat to his three main rivals."
---Associated Press, May 8, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: New York Yankees 4, Baltimore Orioles 3
May 7, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photos of New York Yankees batter Alex Rodriguez (versus the Baltimore Orioles) hitting his 661st Major League Baseball home run on May 7, 2015, a hit that put him ahead of the total career home runs of Willie Mays
New York Yankees 4, Baltimore Orioles 3
Monthly Jobs Report: Robust Job Creation in April 2015
May 8, 2015 (Friday)
Above: CNN chart showing U.S. monthly job creation from April 2014 through April 2015; President Barack Obama
CNN: Robust Job Creation in U.S. in April 2015
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
May 8, 2015 (Friday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 18,191 on May 8, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 6, Kansas City Royals 5
May 8, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of Detroit Tigers batter Ian Kinsler laying down a bunt versus the Kansas City Royals in Detroit on May 8, 2015; AP photo of Detroit Tigers players celebrating a victory over the Kansas City Royals, May 8, 2015
Detroit 6, Kansas City 5
2016 Presidential Election: Jeb Bush Courts the Religious Right at Liberty University
May 9, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, Saturday, May 9, 2015
Associated Press: Jeb Bush Delivers Commencement Address at Liberty University, May 9, 2015
"Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Saturday condemned the Obama administration's use of 'coercive federal power' to limit religious freedom as he courted Christian conservatives at a Liberty University commencement ahead of a likely presidential run."
---Associated Press, May 9, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Baltimore Orioles 6, New York Yankees 2
May 9, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of a Baltimore Orioles pitcher in action versus the New York Yankees on May 9, 2015
Baltimore Orioles 6, New York Yankees 2
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Colorado Rockies 5
May 10, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw in Major League Baseball action versus the Colorado Rockies in Denver, Sunday, May 10, 2015
Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Colorado Rockies 5
Major League Baseball Attendance
Deflategate Scandal: NFL Suspends New England Quarterback Tom Brady for Four Games, Team Fined, Draft Picks Taken
May 11, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the AFC Championship Game on January 18, 2015; AP photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during a press conference on January 22, 2015
Reuters: The NFL Suspends Tom Brady for Four Games due to his Role in Deflategate
"The National Football League came down hard on the New England Patriots on Monday for their role in Deflategate, suspending star quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of next season and fining the franchise $1 million.
The NFL also said the Patriots will forfeit their first-round selection in the 2016 draft and a fourth-round pick in 2017 for using under-inflated footballs in last season's AFC Championship game."
---Reuters, May 11, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Baltimore Orioles 5, Toronto Blue Jays 2
May 11, 2015 (Monday)
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Baltimore Orioles 5, Toronto Blue Jays 2
Pew Research Center Study Released: American Religious Affiliations Changing Significantly
May 12, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Pew Research Center graph regarding recent changes in American religious affiliations
Pew Research Center: Americans Were Less Christian in 2014 than They were in 2007
"To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith. But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or 'nothing in particular' – has jumped more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%. And the share of Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths also has inched up, rising 1.2 percentage points, from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Growth has been especially great among Muslims and Hindus, albeit from a very low base."
---Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015
Pew Research Center: Five Takeaways from the New Study on American Religious Affiliation
"Christians are declining, both as a share of the U.S. population and in total number. In 2007, 78.4% of U.S. adults identified with Christian groups, such as Protestants, Catholics, Mormons and others; seven years later, that percentage has fallen to 70.6%. Accounting for overall population growth in that period, that means there are roughly 173 million Christian adults in the U.S. today, down from about 178 million in 2007."
---Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015
Time: American Christian Affiliation in Decline, Pew Research Finds
New York Times: Pew Study Finds American Religious Affiliations Have Shifted in a Noteworthy Manner from 2007 to 2014
"The Christian share of adults in the United States has declined sharply since 2007, affecting nearly all major Christian traditions and denominations, and crossing age, race and region, according to an extensive survey by the Pew Research Center.
Seventy-one percent of American adults were Christian in 2014, the lowest estimate from any sizable survey to date, and a decline of 5 million adults and 8 percentage points since a similar Pew survey in 2007.
The Christian share of the population has been declining for decades, but the pace rivals or even exceeds that of the country’s most significant demographic trends, like the growing Hispanic population. It is not confined to the coasts, the cities, the young or the other liberal and more secular groups where one might expect it, either."
---New York Times, May 12, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Pittsburgh Pirates 7, Philadelphia Phillies 2
May 12, 2015 (Tuesday)
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Pittsburgh Pirates 7, Philadelphia Phillies 2
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 4, Atlanta Braves 3
May 12, 2015 (Tuesday)
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Reds 4, Braves 3
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 2, Minnesota Twins 1
May 12, 2015 (Tuesday)
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Detroit 2, Minnesota 1
Deadly Amtrak Derailment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 12, 2015 (Tuesday)
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Reuters: Deadly Amtrak Derailment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
"Rescue workers on Wednesday searched through twisted metal and debris after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, while investigators sought the cause of the accident that killed at least six people and injured scores of others.
Authorities said they did not know why the New York City-bound train carrying 243 people derailed at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (0130 GMT Wednesday), sending all seven cars and the engine off the track. One car was tossed upside down and three on their sides, and passengers and luggage were sent flying, survivors said."
---Reuters, May 13, 2015
Associated Press: Deadly Amtrak Derailment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 12, 2015
"Federal investigators arrived Wednesday to determine why an Amtrak train jumped the tracks in a wreck that killed at least six people, injured dozens and plunged screaming passengers into darkness and chaos.
The mayor said some of the 238 passengers remained unaccounted for, raising fears the death toll could rise.
Train 188, a Northeast Regional, was en route from Washington to New York with 238 passengers and five crew members when it derailed as it was rounding a sharp curve in the city's working-class Port Richmond section shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
Passengers had to scramble through the windows of toppled cars to escape. One of the seven cars was severely mangled.
The accident closed the nation's busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived to begin examining the twisted wreckage, the tracks and the signals."
---Associated Press, May 13, 2015
By Treaty, the Vatican Officially Recognizes Palestine as a State
May 13, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority; Pope Francis
Associated Press: The Vatican Recognizes the State of Palestine, May 13, 2015
"The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized Wednesday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects.
The treaty, which concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.
The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state and constitutes official diplomatic recognition."
---Associated Press, May 13, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 5, Atlanta Braves 1
May 13, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above:
Reds 5, Braves 1
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Philadelphia Phillies 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
May 13, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above:
Philadelphia Phillies 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
2016 Presidential Election: Jeb Bush Surrenders on the Question of the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq
May 14, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Iraq
Washington Post: Jeb Bush Now Says He Wouldn't Have Invaded Iraq, May 14, 2015
"After a week of painfully struggling to talk about the war in Iraq started by his brother, Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush stated definitively here Thursday that he would not have invaded that country based on the intelligence failures that now are known.
'Knowing what we now know, what would you have done? I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq,' Bush said at a campaign stop before a few dozen local business leaders at Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe.
Bush tried to explain his days of difficulty articulating a clear position on Iraq as the result of being reluctant to say anything that might suggest he was ungrateful for the sacrifice of the U.S. armed forces and their families during 12 years of war."
---Washington Post, May 14, 2015
ABC15.com: Jeb Bush Visited Tempe, Arizona, May 14, 2015
AZCentral.com: Jeb Bush in Tempe, Arizona, May 14, 2015
"After days of refusing to say whether, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Jeb Bush relented Thursday and said he would not have invaded.
'If we're all supposed to answer hypothetical questions, knowing what we know now, what would you have done?' Bush said with a twinge of annoyance while campaigning in Arizona. 'I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.'
It was an answer the former Florida governor and likely Republican candidate for president had refused to give in several public appearances this week, even as most of his Republican rivals did so and criticized him for sidestepping the question."
---AZCentral.com, May 14, 2015
TalkingPointsMemo.com: U.S. Invasion of Iraq Was Not an Honest Mistake
"The story we're hearing today is: Yes, it was a mistake. We wouldn't do it again knowing what we know now. But we acted on information that just turned out to be wrong. But that is quite simply a crock. The Bush administration was at best in deep denial about the true costs of the invasion. And it lead the country to war based on claims that were quite simply willful deceptions - lies. It may be too much to say that it was obvious to everyone at the time. But to reporters working the story and certainly anyone in the government, it was clear that the White House was involved in a mammoth exaggeration. Only later did it emerge that there was even more willful deception than those following closely realized at the time. Looking back and looking at the time it has always been somewhat difficult to find the bright line where flagrant lying met willful self-deception. But the truth is painful and clear: Iraq wasn't a good faith mistake. It was a calamity based on lies and willful deceptions. Much of that was clear at the time. It's all clear now."
---Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, May 15, 2015
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Jeb Bush and Iraq
The basic premise that this challenge to Jeb reinforces is that the Iraq War happened only because of bad intelligence. George W. Bush was misled by intelligence failures, and it still gives him a 'sickening feeling.' In this framing, the question becomes: Will you admit that you were misled into supporting a war that everyone now agrees in hindsight was an unnecessary and tragic mistake?
But this leaves out a big part of the story of the run-up to the war, which is that some people were arguing at the time against invading Iraq, on the grounds that the evidence was all right there in plain sight that Iraq did not pose a threat imminent enough to justify an invasion. Some people (I’m not claiming to be among them) were publicly shouting themselves hoarse, pointing out at the time that, at the very least, there were serious questions about whether Iraq really posed the threat the Bush administration claimed it did.
---Greg Sargent, Washington Post, May 14, 2015
May 14, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 18,252 on May 14, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 13, Minnesota Twins 1
May 14, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of Detroit Tigers batter Miguel Cabrera hitting a home run versus the Minnesota Twins in Detroit on May 14, 2015
Above:
Detroit 13, Minnesota 1
ISIS Forces Enter the Center of Ramadi, the Capital of Anbar Province in Iraq
May 15, 2015 (Friday)
Above:
Above: Wikipedia map of Iraq; Wikipedia map of Iraq with Anbar Province highlighted in dark orange
Above: BBC map of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
New York Times: ISIS Forces Enter the Heart of Ramadi, May 15, 2015
"Islamic State militants on Friday afternoon seized the main government headquarters in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar Province, and raised their black flag before setting fire to the compound.
The capture of the building, even as it was too early to declare that the entire city had fallen to the Islamic State, appeared to represent a significant shift in the back-and-forth battle for Ramadi that has unfolded for nearly a year and a half in Iraq."
---New York Times, May 15, 2015
BBC: Government Headquarters Building in Ramadi, Iraq Falls to ISIS, May 15, 2015
"Islamic State militants have seized the main government building in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province.
As many as six suicide car bombs and mortars were used in the assault on the compound that houses the main police HQ and governor's office.
At least 50 security personnel are reported to have been taken prisoner at the site.
IS and Iraqi troops have been battling for months to take control of the strategically important Anbar province.
The attack by IS militants began overnight when the suicide car bombs were driven into compound housing a number of government buildings, killing at least 10 people and wounding a number of others.
Fighting continued into Friday and by 14:00 (11:00 GMT) the black flag of IS was seen flying over the complex."
---BBC, May 15, 2015
Reuters: ISIS Seizes Key Government Building in Ramadi, Iraq, May 15, 2015
"Islamic State militants raised their black flag over the local government compound in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Friday and claimed victory through mosque loudspeakers after overrunning most of the western provincial capital.
The insurgents attacked Ramadi overnight using six suicide car bombs to reach the city center, where the Anbar governorate compound is located, police sources said.
Fighting continued on Friday in parts of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, and government forces were still in control of a military command center to the west of the city - the capital of Iraq's largest province.
If Ramadi were to fall completely to Islamic State it would be a strategic blow to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government, only six weeks after the army and Shi'ite militias took the city of Tikrit from Islamic State."
---Reuters, May 15, 2015
CNN: ISIS Takes Key Government Building in Ramadi, Iraq, May 15, 2015
"ISIS has launched a wide-scale attack on Iraqi security forces in Ramadi in an apparent attempt to take the rest of the key central Iraqi city, a provincial governor said Friday.
The ISIS offensive, which started Thursday night and continued into Friday, included suicide attacks with explosive-rigged cars near security posts in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, Anbar Gov. Suhaib Al-Rawi said.
On Friday, ISIS raised its trademark black flag over the provincial government building after capturing it, according to a security source who just left the city and a civilian still inside the city.
Also ISIS captured the Ramadi police headquarters building and the Ramadi Great Mosque after fierce clashes that pushed Iraqi special forces from the area, the sources said."
---CNN, May 15, 2015
Associated Press: ISIS Captures Key Government Building in Ramadi, Iraq, May 15, 2015
"Islamic State militants on Friday captured the main government compound in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, after fierce clashes with security forces.
Ramadi's Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi says the militants raised the black flag of the IS group over the area after troops were forced to withdraw from the compound, which houses most of the city's government offices.
He said the IS militants, who also seized other parts of the city, are now attacking the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province.
Dalaf said at least 10 policemen were killed in the fighting and dozens of other security forces were wounded. He said IS militants killed several captured policemen and army officers in the city, where most civilians have fled.
U.S. troops saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year Iraq intervention in Anbar, and Ramadi was a major insurgent stronghold. The IS group captured the nearby city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in January 2014, months before its main sweep across northern and western Iraq.
The IS assault on the Ramadi government compound began with three nearly simultaneous suicide car bombings. Two Humvees previously seized from the Iraqi army were used in Friday's attack, al-Kubaisi said.
Dozens of families were forced to flee their homes in the area, said Athal al-Fahdawi, an Anbar councilman.
The head of Anbar's provincial council, Sabah Karhout, appealed to the central government in Baghdad to send reinforcements and urged the U.S.-led coalition to increase airstrikes against the militants in Ramadi."
---Associated Press, May 15, 2015
National Review's Tom Rogan: The Significance of Ramadi
College Student To Jeb Bush: "Your Brother Created ISIS"
NewYorker.com: Did George W. Bush Bring About the Rise of ISIS?
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: Jeb Bush and Iraq
"In Bushworld, in other words, playing a central role in catastrophic policy failure doesn’t disqualify you from future influence. If anything, a record of being disastrously wrong on national security issues seems to be a required credential."
---Paul Krugman, The New York Times, May 15, 2015
TheDailyBeast.com: A Recent Riot in Baghdad, Iraq
The New Republic's Brian Beutler: Jeb Bush Folds on Dubya's 2003 Invasion of Iraq
McClatchy: ISIS Takes Much of Ramadi, May 15, 2015
"The Islamic State on Friday took control of the provincial government center of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, and appeared to be in control of most of the city in a major defeat for the Iraqi government.
Islamic State forces also appeared to be closing in on government positions in two other key locations in Anbar province, the towns of Baghdadi and Karmah, in a broad offensive that if successful would end the government presence in all of the province’s major population centers. The capture of Baghdadi also would cut the supply lines to the Iraqi garrison protecting the strategic Haditha Dam.
U.S. officials offered conflicting views of the events, with the State Department and the Pentagon at first downplaying the significance of what had taken place. But a later statement from the White House made clear that the situation was urgent and that the United States was rushing shipments of heavy weapons, ammunition and supplies to Iraq to deal with the Islamic State advance."
---McClatchy, May 15, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 10, St. Louis Cardinals 4
May 15, 2015 (Friday)
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Detroit 10, St. Louis 4 Detroit Free Press: Tigers Have Big Night at the Plate, May 15, 2015
White House Announces: In Syria, U.S. Special Forces Kill High-Ranking ISIS Operative, Abu Sayyaf
May 16, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Syria; AP map of Syria with location of U.S. Special Forces operation labeled
Above: President Barack H. Obama
New York Times: U.S. Announces that American Special Forces in Syria Have Killed Abu Sayyaf, a Top ISIS Operative
"American Special Operations forces mounted a rare raid into eastern Syria early Saturday, killing a leader of the Islamic State and about a dozen militant fighters, as well as capturing his wife and freeing an 18-year old Yazidi woman whom Pentagon officials said had been held as a slave.
In the first successful raid by American ground troops since the military campaign against the Islamic State began last year, two dozen Delta Force commandos entered Syria aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Ospreys and killed the leader, a man known as Abu Sayyaf. One American military official described him as the Islamic State’s 'emir of oil and gas.'"
---New York Times, May 16, 2015
Reuters: U.S. Announces that American Special Forces in Syria Have Killed a Top ISIS Money-Man
"American special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State leader in a raid in Syria, U.S. officials said on Saturday, an operation that marked a departure from Washington's strategy of relying primarily on air strikes to target militants there.
Delta Force commandos used UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to punch deep into eastern Syria from Iraq. They engaged in a firefight and hand-to-hand combat with Islamic State fighters, killed a key figure in the group named as Abu Sayyaf and captured his wife, U.S. officials said.
The officials described Sayyaf, a Tunisian, as an Islamic State commander who helped manage the group's black-market sales of oil and gas to raise funds. The officials said President Barack Obama ordered the overnight operation, which killed about a dozen Islamic State fighters and had been planned for several weeks.
It marked the first known U.S. special forces operation inside Syria apart from a failed mission last year to rescue U.S. and other foreign hostages held by Islamic State in northeastern Syria.
Wary of the United States getting pulled deeper into Middle East conflicts, Obama has promised not to commit major ground forces in the fight against Islamic State, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq. But he has left open the prospect of special forces raids.
It was not immediately clear if this one marked the start of a new chapter in Syria."
---Reuters, May 16, 2015
Associated Press: U.S. Special Forces Conduct Operation in Syria Resulting in the Killing of a High-Ranking ISIS Operative, Abu Sayyaf
"In a rare ground attack deep into Syria, U.S. Army commandos killed a man described as the Islamic State's head of oil operations, captured his wife and rescued a woman whom American officials said was enslaved.
A team of Delta Force commandos slipped across the border from Iraq under cover of darkness Saturday aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey aircraft, according to a U.S. defense official knowledgeable about details of the raid. The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Americans intended to capture a militant identified by U.S. officials as Abu Sayyaf. When they arrived at his location, a multi-story building, they met stiff resistance, the U.S. official said, and a firefight ensued, resulting in bullet-hole damage to the U.S. aircraft.
Abu Sayyaf was killed, along with an estimated dozen IS fighters, U.S. officials said. No American was killed or wounded.
Before the sun had risen, the commandos flew back to Iraq where Abu Sayyaf's wife, Umm Sayyaf, was being questioned in U.S. custody, officials said. The goal was to gain intelligence about IS operations and any information about hostages, including American citizens, who were held by the group, according to Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council."
---Associated Press, May 16, 2015
The War Against ISIS: The Battle of Ramadi, Iraq Continues
May 16, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: BBC map of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled; AP photo of Iraqi refugees fleeing Ramadi, Saturday, May 16, 2015
Above: BBC map regarding ISIS presence and control in Iraq and Syria, circa April 2015
Above: Map from the Institute for the Study of War
McClatchy: Coverage of the Battle of Ramadi, May 16, 2015
"The Islamic State on Saturday consolidated its control over Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, whose capture by the militants on Friday marked the worst defeat for the Iraqi government since the fall of Mosul nearly a year ago.
Iraqi and local officials said Islamic State fighters were combing through neighborhoods in search of government employees and pro-government tribal fighters and were conducting summary public executions.
The mayor of Ramadi, Mohammed Kubaisi, told McClatchy by phone that some government soldiers and police had withdrawn to a northern suburb in hopes of holding out until promised reinforcements from Baghdad arrive. But as of Saturday evening, despite claims by government officials in Baghdad that fresh troops had been deployed, no reinforcements had arrived and the Islamic State was operating freely in the area, the mayor said."
---McClatchy, May 16, 2015
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: The U.S. Invasion of Iraq was a Crime
"But back to Iraq: the crucial thing to understand is that the invasion wasn’t a mistake, it was a crime. We were lied into war. And we shouldn’t let that ugly truth be forgotten."
---Paul Krugman, The New York Times, May 16, 2015
The Preakness Stakes in Baltimore: American Pharoah Wins 2nd Leg of the Triple Crown
May 16, 2015 (Thursday)
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Above:
Associated Press: American Pharoah Wins the Preakness Stakes, May 16, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 4, St. Louis Cardinals 3
May 16, 2015 (Saturday)
Above:
Detroit Free Press: Tigers 4, Cardinals 3
Detroit Tigers 4, St. Louis Cardinals 3 (10 Innings) Yankees 5, Royals 1
Debacle in Iraq's Anbar Province: The City of Ramadi Falls to ISIS
May 17, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of Iraqi Security Forces withdrawing from Ramadi, Iraq, Sunday, May 17, 2015; Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi
Above: CNN screen image (posted on Twitter, May 17, 2015) showing Iraq with Anbar Province and the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
Above: CNN map showing most of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
Reuters: Coverage of the Battle of Ramadi, May 17, 2015
"Islamic State militants drove security forces from a key military base in western Iraq on Sunday and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi authorized the deployment of Shi'ite paramilitaries to wrest back control of the mainly Sunni province.
Members of the security forces said they had withdrawn from the Anbar Operations Command after it came under attack by the insurgents, who have now trapped them in an area to the west of the city of Ramadi."
---Reuters, May 17, 2015
DailyMail.co.uk: Coverage of the Battle of Ramadi, May 17, 2015
Associated Press: GOP Hopefuls Take Position that the U.S. Invasion of iraq was a Mistake
"A dozen years later, American politics has reached a rough consensus about the Iraq War: It was a mistake.
Politicians hoping to be president rarely run ahead of public opinion. So it's a revealing moment when the major contenders for president in both parties find it best to say that 4,491 Americans and countless Iraqis lost their lives in a war that shouldn't have been waged.
Many people have been saying that for years, of course. Polls show most of the public have judged the war a failure by now. Over time, more and more GOP politicians have allowed that the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq undermined Republican President George W. Bush's rationale for the 2003 invasion."
---Associated Press, May 17, 2015
Washington Post: Coverage of the Battle of Ramadi, May 17, 2015
"Hundreds of police, soldiers and tribal fighters fled Ramadi on Sunday after Islamic State militants captured one of the last pro-government holdouts in the Iraqi city, police and tribesmen said.
The retreat appears to have dealt a blow to efforts announced by Iraqi officials to defend the city, capital of Iraq’s largest province, by sending military reinforcements to fight the advancing extremist group.
The pro-government forces retreated from the Malaab area of the city at 1:30 p.m., abandoning about 60 military vehicles, including military-grade Humvees, to the militants, said Col. Nasser al-Alwani of the Ramadi police force. About half of the abandoned vehicles were sent by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to reinforce the neighborhood Saturday, he added."
---Washington Post, May 17, 2015
BBC: Coverage of the Battle of Ramadi, May 17, 2015
"Islamic State militants have made further gains in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, with reports of them taking a key military command centre.
Local officials have said the city is on the verge of falling, with army reinforcements unable to hold ground.
The prime minister called on troops not to abandon their posts, while telling Shia militias to prepare to deploy.
Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's largest province, Anbar, and is just 70 miles (112km) west of Baghdad.
Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP news agency that security forces had abandoned an operations command base on Saturday on the northern bank of the Euphrates."
---BBC, May 17, 2015
Associated Press: ISIS Conquers Ramadi, Iraq, May 17, 2015
"The contested city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group on Sunday, as Iraqi forces abandoned their weapons and armored vehicles to flee the provincial capital in a major loss despite intensified U.S.-led airstrikes.
Bodies, some burned, littered the streets as local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers gripping onto their sides.
'Ramadi has fallen,' said Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the governor of Anbar province. 'The city was completely taken. ... The military is fleeing.'
With defeat looming, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province, apparently fearing the extremists could capture the entire desert region that saw intense fighting after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.
Sunday's retreat recalled the collapse of Iraqi security forces last summer in the face of the Islamic State group's blitz into Iraq that saw it capture a third of the country, where it has declared a caliphate, or Islamic State. It also calls into question the Obama administration's hopes of relying solely on airstrikes to support the Iraqi forces in expelling the extremists.
Earlier Sunday, al-Abadi ordered Shiite militias to prepare to go into the Sunni-dominated province, ignoring U.S. concerns their presence could spark sectarian bloodshed. By late Sunday, a large number of Shiite militiamen had arrived at a military base near Ramadi, apparently to participate in a possible counter-offensive, said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout."
---Associated Press, May 17, 2015
New York Times: Ramadi, Iraq Has Fallen to ISIS, May 17, 2015
"The last Iraqi security forces fled the provincial capital of Ramadi on Sunday, as the city fell completely to the militants of the Islamic State, who ransacked the provincial military headquarters, seizing a large store of weapons, and carried out executions of people loyal to the government, according to security officials and tribal leaders.
The fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State, despite intensified American airstrikes in recent weeks in a bid to save the city, represented the biggest victory so far this year for the extremist group, which has declared a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the vast areas of Syria and Iraq that it controls. The fall of Ramadi also laid bare the failed strategy of the Iraqi government, which had announced last month a new offensive to retake Anbar Province, a vast desert region in the west of which Ramadi is the capital.
'The city has fallen,' said Muhannad Haimour, the spokesman for Anbar’s governor. Mr. Haimour said that at least 500 civilians and security personnel had been killed over the last two days in and around Ramadi, either from fighting or executions. Among the dead, he said, was the 3-year-old daughter of a soldier."
---New York Times, May 17, 2015
McClatchy: Ramadi, Iraq Falls to ISIS, May 17, 2015
"Iraqi security forces attempting to retake control of the western city of Ramadi were routed in heavy fighting Sunday, the worst defeat for Iraq’s central government since Islamic State militants stormed across the country last June.
In a replay of last year’s military debacle, elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area, leaving several hundred soldiers surrounded in the last government-held enclave in the city.
Multiple security sources, none of whom agreed to be identified, speaking from both within the besieged Anbar Operations Center as well as with the units fleeing the city, described the fight for control of the capital of Iraq’s largest province as essentially over after reinforcements sent on Saturday to retake the city were crushed by Islamic State fighters.
'Only God can save us,' said one officer speaking by phone from inside the Anbar operations center, where officers had been coordinating the operation. The officer said that several hundred policemen and soldiers were surrounded inside the command center, which was repeatedly struck by suicide bombers and heavy artillery fire as militants cut off their last routes of escape."
---McClatchy, May 17, 2015
Massacre in Waco, Texas: Nine Killed in Biker Gangs Clash
May 17, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of bikers in Waco, Texas, May 17, 2015
Reuters: Nine Killed in Clash Between Biker Gangs in Waco, Texas, May 17, 2015
"Nine people were killed on Sunday when a simmering feud among rival biker gangs boiled over at a sports bar in Waco, Texas, resulting in gunfire and a full-blown battle in the parking lot, police said.
The clash took place at Twin Peaks Sports Bar and Grill in a shopping mall in the central Texas city, Waco police said. In addition to the fatalities, more than a dozen people were taken to area hospitals with injuries.
The fight, which involved members of at least three gangs, erupted shortly after noon and quickly escalated into a brawl involving clubs, knives, and chains, Waco Sgt. Patrick Swanton said. The fight may have been tied to a dispute over a parking spot, Swanton said.
When the bikers began shooting, officers moved in, some of them also discharging their weapons, the spokesman said in a televised press conference. When the shooting ended, bodies were scattered across two parking lots."
---Reuters, May 17, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Houston Astros 4, Toronto Blue Jays 2
May 17, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Houston Astros batter crossing home plate after hitting a home run versus the Toronto Blue Jays in Houston, Sunday, May 17, 2015
Houston Astros 4, Toronto Blue Jays 2
The Series Finale of Mad Men:
May 17, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Promotional image for Season 7 of Mad Men
The War Against ISIS: Shi'ite Forces Seek to Take Back Ramadi from Islamic State
May 18, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Wall Street Journal map of ISIS presence and control in Syria and Iraq, circa May 18, 2015
Reuters: Shi'ite Militia Converge on Ramadi, a Day After the Iraqi City Fell to ISIS, May 18, 2015
"A column of Shi'ite militia fighters arrived at a military base near Ramadi on Monday as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to Islamic State militants in the biggest defeat for the government since last summer.
The U.S.-led coalition stepped up air raids against the Islamists, conducting 19 strikes near Ramadi over the past 72 hours at the request of the Iraqi security forces, a coalition spokesman said.
The militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation, had been ordered to mobilize after the city, the capital of Anbar province, was overrun on Sunday.
The militiamen give the government far more capability to launch a counterattack, but their arrival could add to sectarian animosity in one of the most violent parts of Iraq."
---Reuters, May 18, 2015
Associated Press: Coverage of the Battle of Ramadi, May 18, 2015
"Islamic State militants likely killed up to 500 Iraqi civilians and soldiers and forced 8,000 people to flee from their homes as they captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi, a provincial official said Monday, while the extremists went door-to-door looking for policemen and pro-government tribesmen.
Iraq's government and Iranian-backed Shiite militias vowed to mount a counter-offensive and reclaim Ramadi, the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar province. Iran's Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan flew to Baghdad on a surprise visit for urgent talks with Iraqi leaders.
The fall of Ramadi was a stunning defeat for Iraq's security forces and military, which fled as the Islamic State extremists overwhelmed the last hold-out positions of pro-government forces, despite the support of U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the extremists. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers desperate to reach safety gripping onto their sides.
Since Friday, when the battle for the city entered its final stages, "we estimate that 500 people have been killed, both civilians and military," said a spokesman for the Anbar provincial government, Muhannad Haimour.
The figures could not be independently confirmed, but Islamic State militants have in the past killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers in the aftermath of their major victories.
Some 8,000 people fled the city, Haimour said. It was not immediately clear how many people remain in Ramadi — once a city of 850,000 that has been draining population for months amid fighting with the extremists besieging it. An enormous exodus took place in April, when the U.N. estimates some 114,000 residents streamed out of Ramadi and surrounding villages.
Bodies, some charred, were strewn in the streets or tossed into the Euphrates river, said Naeem al-Gauoud, a leader from the Sunni tribes that fought against IS in Ramadi.
Ramadi's streets were deserted Monday, with only few people venturing out of their homes to look for food, according to two residents reached by telephone."
---Associated Press, May 18, 2015
Washington Post: Editorial, May 18, 2015
"It has been apparent for some time that the United States lacks a strategy to fulfill President Obama’s pledge to 'degrade and ultimately destroy' the Islamic State since it has no plan to root out the terrorists’ base in Syria. There was hope, though, that Mr. Obama’s half-measures might be enough to blunt the Islamic State’s advances in Iraq, leaving the Syria problem for the next U.S. president. With the stunning fall of Ramadi on Sunday, even that modest optimism is questionable."
---Editorial Board, Washington Post, May 18, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Miami Marlins Select Dan Jennings as Manager
May 18, 2015 (Monday)
ABC News: Miami Marlins Name Dan Jennings as Manager, May 18, 2015
The Class of 2015: Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette, Alabama
May 18, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Baldwin County High School Class of 2015, Bay Minette, Alabama, May 18, 2015
Above: AL.com photo of a portion of the graduates of the Baldwin County High School Class of 2015, May 18, 2015; Baldwin County High School athletics logo
Above: AL.com photo of part of the crowd at the Baldwin County High graduation ceremony held in Bay Minette, Alabama on May 18, 2015
Above: AL.com photos of the Valedictorian (left) and Salutatorian (right) of Baldwin County High School's Class of 2015
Above: AL.com photo of the Baldwin County High School graduation ceremony in Bay Minette, Alabama, May 18, 2015
AL.com: Baldwin County High School Class of 2015 Graduation Ceremony
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago White Sox 2, Cleveland Indians 1
May 18, 2015 (Monday)
Above: Major League Baseball action between the Chicago White Sox versus the Cleveland Indians in Chicago, Monday, May 18, 2015
Chicago White Sox 2, Cleveland 1
The War Against ISIS in Anbar Province, Iraq: Islamic State's Occupation of Ramadi
May 19, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP map regarding ISIS presence in Syria and Iraq, circa May 19, 2015
Above: CNN map of much of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
Above: Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi; President Barack Obama
Reuters: Coverage of the ISIS Occupation of Ramadi, Iraq, May 19, 2015
"Iraqi security forces on Tuesday deployed tanks and artillery around Ramadi to confront Islamic State fighters who have captured the city in a major defeat for the Baghdad government and its Western backers.
After Ramadi fell on Sunday, Shi'ite militiamen allied to the Iraqi army had advanced to a nearby base in preparation for a counterattack on the city, which lies in the Sunni Muslim province of Anbar, just 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
As pressure mounted for action to retake the city, a local government official urged Ramadi residents to join the police and the army for what the Shi'ite militiamen said would be the 'Battle of Anbar'.
The White House said a U.S.-led air campaign would back multi-sectarian Iraqi forces in their attempt to regain Ramadi, whose fall exposed the limits of U.S. airpower in its battle against the radical Sunni Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria."
---Reuters, May 19, 2015
TheDailyBeast.com: In Ramadi, Iraqi Forces Lacked the Will to Fight ISIS
"They saw the ISIS attack coming—and they ran.
U.S. military officials believe that the city of Ramadi fell to the self-proclaimed Islamic State over the weekend in large part because the Iraqi security forces there fled in the face of an ISIS assault.
The American strategy to fight ISIS in Iraq depends on local troops standing up to the terror army. That Iraqi forces chose not to fight—much as they did last year when ISIS sacked the city of Mosul—reinforced how little the U.S. effort has bolstered Iraq’s security. The Pentagon has said it trained 7,000 Iraqi forces since Mosul’s collapse and launched more than 3,700 airstrikes, hitting 6,300 targets. In the month leading to Ramadi’s collapse, the U.S.-led coalition conducted 165 airstrikes in Ramadi alone, according to military statistics. And yet, once again, the Iraqis could not mount a defense against a charging ISIS.
The 6,000 Iraqi forces—plagued with poor equipment, bad resupply chains, and low morale—saw a series of ISIS attacks and 8 to 12 car bombs hit in Ramadi sometime Friday. In response, those troops decided to retreat to a position a few miles east and north, U.S. defense officials believe. That is, once confronted, the troops fled the fight."
---Nancy A. Youssef, The Daily Beast, May 19, 2015
Washington Post: The Fall of Ramadi and Iraq's Failures in Dealing with ISIS
"Now, with Ramadi being overrun, many of the Sunni tribal leaders and fighters who might have helped the government in Anbar have been killed or have fled to other parts of the country, analysts say.
'The plan is looking like a failure,' said Ihsan al-Shamari, a political analyst who lives in Baghdad. 'Now the Sunnis are even more suspicious of the government, and now it will be even harder to get them to cooperate with a political system that they already deeply distrusted.'
A bloc of Sunni parties in the Iraqi parliament issued a statement Tuesday saying they 'blame the government' for Ramadi’s capture by the Islamic State. The bloc, called the National Forces Union, demanded an investigation and called on the government to send arms to Anbar and pay salaries to pro-government fighters in the province."
---Washington Post, May 19, 2015
New York Times: White House Not Planning to Change Strategy to Combat ISIS, May 19, 2015
"The White House on Tuesday defended President Obama’s strategy for countering Islamic State militants in Iraq, arguing that while the group’s capture of the provincial capital of Ramadi had been a setback, it should not be taken as a broader sign that the American approach is failing.
As Mr. Obama assembled his national security team to discuss the latest developments in Iraq and how to retake Ramadi, the largest city in Anbar Province, administration officials said that Mr. Obama’s strategy of conducting airstrikes against the militants while relying on Iraqi forces to confront them on the ground had yielded gains."
---New York Times, May 19, 2015
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Closes at a Record High: 18,312
May 19, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: Reuters chart showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a close of 18,312 on May 19, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 4, Texas Rangers 3
May 19, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox pitcher in action versus the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park in Boston on May 19, 2015; AP photo of Boston Red Sox batter David Ortiz hitting a home run versus the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park in Boston on May 19, 2015
Boston Red Sox 4, Texas Rangers 3
2015 Major League Baseball Season: San Francisco 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 0
May 19, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photos of San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Hudson in Major League Baseball action versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, May 19, 2015
San Francisco Giants 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 0
ISIS Captures Portions of Palmyra, Syra, and in Iraq, Refugees from Ramadi Pour into Baghdad
May 20, 2015 (Wednesday)
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Associated Press: Coverage of the War Against ISIS, May 20, 2015
"Islamic State militants seized parts of the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday after fierce clashes with government troops, renewing fears the extremist group would destroy the priceless archaeological site if it reaches the ruins.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants gained control of as much as a third of the town in heavy clashes during the day. Palmyra is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is famous for its 2,000-year-old majestic Roman colonnades.
The majority of the ruins are located in Palmyra's south, and the militants entered Wednesday from the north after seizing the state security building from government forces. But their presence has sparked concerns they would destroy the ruins as they have done with major archaeological sites in neighboring Iraq.
Following setbacks in both Syria and Iraq, Islamic State fighters appear to have gotten a second wind in recent days, capturing Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest Sunni province, and advancing in central Syria to the outskirts of Palmyra.
In Iraq, thousands of displaced people fleeing from Ramadi and the violence in the western Anbar province poured into Baghdad on Wednesday after the central government waived restrictions and granted them conditional entry, a provincial official said."
---Associated Press, May 20, 2015
ISIS Captures Palmyra, Syria
May 20, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Syria
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Associated Press: Palmyra, Syria Falls to ISIS, May 20, 2015
"Islamic State extremists captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra after government defense lines there collapsed Wednesday, a stunning triumph for the group only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq.
It was unclear by nightfall how close to Palmyra's famed archaeological site the militants had advanced, activists said, adding that Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area.
The ruins at Palmyra are one of the world's most renowned historic sites and there were fears the extremists would destroy them as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq. The UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the 'Bride of the Desert.'
The fall of the town to the Islamic State group after a week of fighting was an enormous loss to the government, not only because of its cultural significance, but because it opens the way for the extremists to advance to key government-held areas, including Damascus and the Syrian coast to the south and southwest, as well as the contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour to the east.
Next to it are also important gas and oil fields in the country's central region."
---Associated Press, May 20, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Arizona Diamondbacks 6 , Miami Marlins 1
May 20, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of a Miami Marlins batter in action versus the Arizona Diamondbacks in Miami, Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Arizona Diamondbacks 6, Miami Marlins 1
Detroit Tigers 5, Milwaukee Brewers 2
David Letterman Hosts his Final Show
May 20, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of David Letterman during the taping of the finale of Late Show with David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, Wednesday, May 20, 2015; Title image of Late Show with David Letterman
Associated Press: David Letterman's Final Show, May 20, 2015
"There are those who will argue that the world of television hasn't suffered such a loss in nearly a generation, and they're right.
When David Letterman signed off CBS' 'Late Show' for good Wednesday, he closed the book on more than his own incomparable career in late night. He closed out a broadcasting epoch that also encompasses his mentor, "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, who retired with great emotion and ceremony in 1992. Dave also called it a day for Steve Allen and Jack Paar, who back in the 1950s broke ground as each took a turn as the host of 'Tonight.'
All that is part of Letterman's legacy — as well as a career-spanning total of 'eight minutes of laughter,' he cracked in his final monologue.
For anyone sad that Letterman is leaving the spotlight, he offered joking consolation, announcing that he and about-to-be-former bandleader Paul Shaffer would soon 'be debuting our new act at Caesars Palace with our white tigers.'
If only.
Dave's much-awaited finale was surprisingly unsurprising for such a momentous occasion. But it was clearly what Letterman wanted for himself: a wrapping up and an occasion to say thanks. He seemed to enjoy himself greatly in the process.
At the top of the show, he was showered with a two-minute standing ovation. Then some of his favorite celebs delivered the final Top Ten List. He presented a sampling of vintage clips, and a new filmed segment displayed a day in the life of Dave doing 'Late Show' — fun, even instructive, if an odd idea since this is no longer the way Dave's day will go.
Near the end of the show, Letterman voiced appreciation for all the praise and tributes, 'merited or not,' directed at him recently, but added, 'Do me a favor: Save a little for my funeral.'"
---Associated Press, May 21, 2015
ISIS in Control of Ancient Ruins Near Palmyra, Syria
May 21, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo (released May 17, 2015) via Syrian Government of Roman ruins near Palmyra, Syria
Above: CNN map of the territorial prevalence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq as of May 21, 2015
Associated Press: ISIS in Control of the Ancient Ruins Near Palmyra, Syria, May 21, 2015
"Islamic State militants overran the famed archaeological site at Palmyra early on Thursday, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, activists and officials said, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighboring Iraq.
The Islamic State's capture of the town of Palmyra late Wednesday was a stunning triumph for the militant group, only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq's largest Sunni province.
As IS took Palmyra, government forces collapsed in the face of the attacks and Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area, activists said. In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from the town.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the extremists overrun the archaeological site, just to the southwest of the town itself, shortly after midnight Wednesday.
An activist in Homs who goes by the name of Bebars al-Talawy also confirmed that IS now controls the ruins at Palmyra."
---Associated Press, May 21, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago Cubs 3, San Diego Padres 0
May 21, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of Chicago Cubs pitcher in Major League Baseball action versus the San Diego Padres in San Diego, Thursday, May 21, 2015
Chicago Cubs 3, San Diego Padres 0
ISIS Forces Push Eastward From Ramadi, Iraq
May 22, 2015 (Friday)
Above: CNN map showing much of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
Above: Institute for the Study of War map regarding territorial control in Iraq as of May 22, 2015
Reuters: ISIS Pushes Eastward From Ramadi, May 22, 2015
"Islamic state fighters pressed an advance east of Ramadi on Friday after breaching Iraqi defenses outside the city the insurgents overran last weekend in a major defeat for the Baghdad government.
The fall of Ramadi is the most significant setback for Iraqi forces in almost a year and has cast doubt on the effectiveness of U.S. strategy in helping Iraq to fight Islamic State.
While pro-government forces are seeking to retake the town, Islamic State fighters have been pushing forward in the direction of Fallujah in a bid to take more territory in Anbar province that would bring them closer to the Iraqi capital.
Amir al-Fahdawi, a leader of the pro-government Sunni tribal force in the area, said the militants were now around 5 km (3 miles) from the town of Khalidiya next to the Habbaniya military base where security forces and members of the Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) Shi'ite militia are massing."
---Reuters, May 22, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Chicago White Sox 3, Minnesota Twins 2
May 22, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of a Chicago White Sox batter in action versus the Minnesota Twins in Chicago, Friday, May 22, 2015
Chicago White Sox 3, Minnesota Twins 2
Shi'ite Militia Forces Move Against ISIS in an Area East of Ramadi, Iraq
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
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Reuters: Shi'ite Militia Forces Push Against ISIS in Area East of Ramadi, May 23, 2015
"A convoy of Shi'ite Muslim militia and Iraqi army forces set out from a base near Ramadi on Saturday to advance on areas held by Islamic State, a Shi'ite spokesman said, launching a counter-offensive to reverse stunning gains by the jihadi insurgents.
The fall of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, to Islamic State on May 17 could be a shattering blow to Baghdad's weak central government. The Sunni Muslim jihadis now control most of Anbar and could threaten the western approaches to Baghdad, or even surge south into Iraq's Shi’ite heartland.
Ramadi's loss is the most serious setback for Iraqi forces in almost a year and has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the U.S. strategy of air strikes to help Baghdad roll back Islamic State, which holds a third each of Iraq and adjacent Syria.
Anbar provincial council member Azzal Obaid said hundreds of Shi'ite fighters, who had arrived at the Habbaniya air base last week after Islamic State took Ramadi, deployed into Khalidiya on Saturday and were approaching Siddiqiya and Madiq, towns in contested territory near Ramadi.
Disadvantaged by poor morale and cohesion among his security forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shi'ite, sent Shi'ite paramilitary groups to try to retake Ramadi despite the risk of inflaming tensions with Anbar's aggrieved, predominantly Sunni population."
---Reuters, May 23, 2015
BBC: Shi'ite Forces See to Press ISIS Forces Near Ramadi, Iraq
White Cleveland, Ohio Police Officer Acquitted in Lethal Shooting of Two Black Suspects
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photos of Cleveland, Ohio police officer Michael Brelo reacting to the announcement of the verdict that acquitted him, Saturday, May 23, 2015
Above: AP photo of Timothy Russell (left) and Malissa Williams (right), the two people shot to death in a barrage of police gunfire on November 29, 2015
Reuters: Cleveland, Ohio Police Officer Acquitted in the 2012 Fatal Shootings of Two Black Motorists
"A Cleveland police officer was found not guilty on Saturday in the shooting deaths of an unarmed black man and a woman after a high-speed car chase in 2012, one in a series of cases that have raised questions over police conduct and race relations in the United States.
Judge John O'Donnell said Officer Michael Brelo, 31, acted reasonably in shooting the two suspects while standing on the hood of their surrounded car and firing multiple rounds through the windshield. Brelo, who was among a group of officers who fired on the car, was found not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
The trial, which began on April 6, took place at a time when U.S. law enforcement is under close scrutiny for the use of lethal force against minority groups. It followed a series of high-profile deaths of unarmed black men in confrontations with police officers, which have prompted sometimes violent demonstrations.
The two people who were killed, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, were black and Brelo, a former Marine, is white."
---Reuters, May 23, 2015
Associated Press: Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo Acquitted in 2012 Fatal Shootings, May 23, 2015
Referendum Results Announced: Voters In Ireland Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of same-sex marriage referendum supporters celebrating in Dublin, Ireland on May 23, 2015
Associated Press: Referendum Vote Count Reveals that Irish Voters Have Legalized Same-Sex Marriage
"Irish voters backed legalizing gay marriage by a landslide, according to electoral figures announced Saturday — a stunning result that illustrates the rapid social change taking place in this traditionally Catholic nation.
Figures from Friday's referendum announced at Dublin Castle showed that 62.1 percent of Irish voters said 'yes.' Outside, watching the results announcement live in the castle's cobblestoned courtyard, thousands of gay rights activists cheered, hugged and cried.
The unexpectedly strong percentage of approval surprised both sides. Analysts and campaigners credited the 'yes' side with adeptly using social media to mobilize first-time young voters and for a series of searing personal stories from Irish gay people to convince voters to back equal marriage rights.
Ireland is the first country to approve gay marriage in a popular national vote. Nineteen other countries have legalized the practice."
---Associated Press, May 23, 2015
New York Times: Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage Prevails in Ireland Via Referendum
"Ireland became the first nation to approve same-sex marriageby a popular vote, sweeping aside the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church in a resounding victory Saturday for the gay rights movement and placing the country at the vanguard of social change.
With the final ballots counted, the vote was 62 percent in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and 38 percent opposed."
---New York Times, May 23, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cleveland Indians 2, Cincinnati Reds 1
May 23, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Cincinnati Reds player attempting to field a ball in a Major League Baseball game versus the Cleveland Indians on May 23, 2015
Cleveland Indians 2, Cincinnati Reds 1
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 8, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 3
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox batter tossing his bat upon hitting a home run versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on May 23, 2015
Red Sox 8, Angels 3
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Miami Marlins 1, Baltimore Orioles 0
May 23, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of Miami Marlins manager Dan Jennings prior to the start of the Major League Baseball game between Miami and the Baltimore Orioles, Saturday, May 23, 2015; AP photo of Miami Marlins batter Martin Prado in action versus the Baltimore Orioles in Miami, Saturday, May 23, 2015
Above: AP photo of a Miami Marlins player scoring the winning run in the 13th inning versus the Baltimore Orioles in Miami, Saturday, May 23, 2015; AP photo of Miami Marlins players celebrating the Miami victory over Baltimore, Saturday, May 23, 2015
Miami 1, Baltimore 0
The War Against ISIS: Iraqi Forces Make Some Progress Against Islamic State East of Ramadi
May 24, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: CNN map showing much of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
Reuters: Coverage of the Battles Near Ramadi, Iraq, May 24, 2015
"Iraqi forces recaptured territory from advancing Islamic State militants near the recently-fallen city of Ramadi on Sunday, while in Syria the government said the Islamists had killed hundreds of people since capturing the town of Palmyra.
The fall of Ramadi and Palmyra, on opposite ends of the vast territory controlled by Islamic State fighters, were the militant group's biggest successes since a U.S.-led coalition launched an air war to stop them last year.
The near simultaneous victories against the Iraqi and Syrian armies have forced Washington to examine its strategy, which involves bombing from the air but leaving fighting on the ground to local forces in both countries.
In a sharp criticism of Washington's ally, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter accused Iraq's army of abandoning Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad, to a much smaller enemy force.
'The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,' he told CNN's State of the Union program. 'They vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they withdrew from the site.'
Iraq's government, along with Iran-backed Shi'ite militiamen and locally-recruited Sunni tribal fighters, launched a counter-offensive on Saturday, a week after losing Ramadi. A police major and a pro-government Sunni tribal fighter in the area said they had retaken the town of Husaiba al-Sharqiya, about 10 km (6 miles) east of Ramadi."
---Reuters, May 24, 2015
In a CNN Interview, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Ripped the Performance of Iraqi Security Forces
May 24, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter; CNN map and graphic regarding Secretary of Defense Ash Carter's comments about the Iraqi Defense Forces at Ramadi
Associated Press: U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Rips the Performance of the Iraqi Security Forces Against ISIS
"The Islamic State group's takeover of the provincial capital Ramadi is stark evidence that Iraqi forces lack the 'will to fight,' Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a TV interview that aired Sunday. The harsh assessment raised new questions about the Obama administration's strategy to defeat the extremist group that has seized a strategically important swath of the Middle East.
Although Iraqi soldiers 'vastly outnumbered' their opposition in the capital of Anbar province, they quickly withdrew last Sunday without putting up much resistance from the city in Iraq's Sunni heartland, Carter said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' The interview aired on Sunday.
The Iraqis left behind large numbers of U.S.-supplied vehicles, including several tanks, now presumed to be in Islamic State hands.
'What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,' Carter said. 'They were not outnumbered; in fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves.'
The White House declined to comment on Sunday.
Iraqi lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the parliamentary defense and security committee, called Carter's comments 'unrealistic and baseless,' in an interview with The Associated Press.
'The Iraqi army and police did have the will to fight IS group in Ramadi, but these forces lack good equipment, weapons and aerial support,' said al-Zamili, a member of the political party headed by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is stridently anti-American.
American officials say they are sending anti-tank weapons to the Iraqi military. But they also noted that Iraqi forces were not routed from Ramadi— they left of their own accord, frightened in part by a powerful wave of Islamic State group suicide truck bombs, some the size of the one that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City two decades ago, said a senior State Department official who spoke to reporters last week under ground rules he not be named.
'The ISF was not driven out of Ramadi,' Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week. 'They drove out of Ramadi.'"
---Associated Press, May 24, 2015
Associated Press: Article Regarding Continued ISIS Control of Ramadi in September 2015
"A summer of stalemate in the effort to reclaim the Iraqi provincial capital of Ramadi, despite U.S.-backed Iraqi troops vastly outnumbering Islamic State fighters, calls into question not only Iraq's ability to win a test of wills over key territory but also the future direction of Washington's approach to defeating the extremist group.
The Ramadi standoff, with no immediate prospect of an Iraqi assault on the city, drags on even as the U.S. prepares to makeover its approach to countering IS in Syria and congressional Republicans cite Ramadi as evidence of a failed American strategy. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a leading critic, says it's clear the U.S. is not winning, 'and if you're not winning in this kind of warfare, you are losing.'
The Obama administration insists patience will pay off, even in Ramadi, where in May, IS won control against a much larger Iraqi force, shattering claims by U.S. military officials that the group was on the defensive across Iraq."
---Associated Press, September 26, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 6, Los Angeles Angels 1
May 24, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox batter in action versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Sunday, May 24, 2015
Red Sox 6, Angels 1
The War Against ISIS: Developments in Ramadi, Iraq and Palmyra, Syria
May 25, 2015 (Monday)
Above: BBC maps of ISIS presence and control in Syria and Iraq, circa May 20, 2015
Reuters: Coverage of the War Against ISIS, May 25, 2015
"Islamic State poured more fighters into Ramadi on Monday as security forces and Shi'ite paramilitaries renewed efforts to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to the Islamists a week ago in a major setback for the government.
In Palmyra, the Syrian air force launched strikes at buildings captured by Islamic State, whose occupation of the city has raised fears that the insurgents will destroy its famed Roman ruins.
Islamic state has killed at least 217 people execution-style, including children, since it moved into the Palmyra area 10 days ago, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A further 300 soldiers were killed in fighting before the city was captured, according to the monitoring group.
Islamic State reinforced Ramadi on Monday, deploying fighters in preparation for battle against security forces and paramilitary groups advancing on the provincial capital.
Iraqi forces have regained ground east of the city since launching a counter-offensive on Saturday, a week after it was overrun by the insurgents, and on Monday retook a rural area south of the city."
---Reuters, May 25, 2015
The War Against ISIS: Iraqi Pushback Against Ash Carter's Comments
May 25, 2015 (Monday)
Above: U.S. Secretary of State Ash Carter; CNN map and graphic regarding Secretary of Defense Ash Carter's cutting comments about the performance of Iraqi Security Forces during ISIS conquest of the city of Ramadi
Associated Press: Iraqi Pushback Against U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, May 25, 2015
"Iraq and Iran pushed back Monday against U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's criticisms over the fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State group, with an Iranian general going as far as saying America had 'no will' to fight the extremists.
In Baghdad, a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister suggested Carter had 'incorrect information,' while Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds forces in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, offered his own assessment of American forces.
The war of words over the loss of Ramadi, amid other gains by the Islamic State group in recent days, lay bare the fissures among countries that have become allies of convenience against the militants. And as Iraqi troops continue to flee their advance, governments across the world are questioning whether relying on Iraqi troops and militiamen on the ground alone will be enough to stop them.
The criticism began Sunday, when Carter told CNN's 'State of the Union' news show that Iraqi forces 'vastly outnumbered' the Islamic State group, but still 'showed no will to fight' and fled their advance on Ramadi.
On Monday, Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said his government was surprised by Carter's comments.
'Carter was likely given incorrect information because the situation on ground is different," al-Hadithi told The Associated Press. "We should not judge the whole army based on one incident.'
Al-Hadithi said the Iraqi government believes the fall of Ramadi was due to mismanagement and poor planning by some senior military commanders in charge. However, he did not elaborate, nor has any action been taken against those commanders.
In Iran, the daily newspaper Javan, which is seen as close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted Soleimani as saying the U.S. didn't do a 'damn thing' to stop the extremists' advance on Ramadi."
---Associated Press, May 25, 2015
The Atlantic: The Iraqi Army and its Poor Fighting Spirit
"What accounts for the Iraqi military’s failure? Many problems stem from the Bush Administration decision to disband the existing Iraq military in 2003 and build a new one from scratch. Intended to rid the institution of officers linked to Saddam Hussein, the move instead left thousands of armed men unemployed and embittered. This contributed to a security vacuum within Iraqi society and fed a vicious anti-U.S. insurgency. Many high-ranking officials who served under Saddam have now become senior commanders with ISIS.
The Iraqi army is also notoriously corrupt, a legacy of Nouri al-Maliki’s years as prime minister. Fearful that a strong military would pose a threat to his power, al-Maliki replaced top commanders with political patrons drawn from his Shia sect, undermining any attempt to establish a merit-based system of promotion. So-called 'ghost battalions' draw salaries despite never reporting for duty, and the forces who do remain are no match for fanatical ISIS fighters. 'Military training, no matter how intensive, and weaponry, no matter how sophisticated and powerful, is no substitute for belief in a cause,' William Astore, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, wrote last year in the American Conservative."
---The Atlantic, May 25, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: New York Yankees 14, Kansas City Royals 1
May 25, 2015 (Monday)
Above: AP photo of a New York Yankees pitcher in action versus the Kansas City Royals in New York, Monday, May 25, 2015
New York Yankees 14, Kansas City Royals 1
The War Against ISIS: Iraqi Forces Begin Offensive Against ISIS Forces Near Ramadi
May 26, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: CNN map showing most of Iraq with the cities of Ramadi and Baghdad labeled
Associated Press: Coverage of the Ramadi-area Iraqi Offensive Against ISIS, May 26, 2015
"Iraq vowed Tuesday to retake Anbar province — now mostly held by the Islamic State — by launching a large-scale military operation less than two weeks after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the extremists in the provincial capital of Ramadi.
The operation, which Iraqi state TV said was backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, is deemed critical in regaining momentum in the fight.
But as a sandstorm descended across the region, there was no sign of any major engagement against the extremists, who have been gaining ground in the province west of Baghdad despite U.S.-led airstrikes.
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said Iraqi forces have begun 'shaping operations' and 'security zone interactions,' which he described as probing and reconnaissance actions that would precede any major combat in or around Ramadi.
The Iraqis have begun moving forward from their base at Habbaniyah, and IS fighters likewise are probing in the direction of Habbaniyah, Warren said. He added that he could not confirm that the Iraqi forces have surrounded Ramadi."
---Associated Press, May 26, 2015
New York Times: Iraqi Offensive Launched Against ISIS Forces Near Ramadi, May 26, 2015
"Iraqi officials said Tuesday that a combined force of Iraqi soldiers and allied Shiite militias had started moving to retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, from Islamic State fighters.
The officials billed the operation that began Tuesday as the start of a major offensive to liberate all of Anbar Province. But most of the action reported on Tuesday involved pro-government forces maneuvering in the desert areas north and east of Ramadi, and it was unclear when an assault there might begin."
---New York Times, May 26, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Detroit Tigers 1, Oakland A's 0
May 26, 2015 (Tuesday)
Above: AP photo of pitchers for the Detroit Tigers (left) and the Oakland Athletics (right) in action in a Major League Baseball game played in Oakland, California, Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Detroit Tigers 1, Oakland A's 0
Iraqi Government Announces that ISIS Suicide Bombers Killed Several Iraqi Soldiers in Anbar Province, Iraq
May 27, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP map showing ISIS presence and control in Syria and Iraq, circa May 27, 2015
Associated Press: Iraqi Government Announces that ISIS Suicide Bombers Killed Several Iraqi Soldiers in Anbar Province, Iraq
"Islamic State extremists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland, an Iraqi military spokesman said Wednesday.
The attacks came just hours after the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced the start of a wide-scale operation to recapture areas under the control of the IS group in Anbar.
Brig. Gen Saad Maan Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, told The Associated Press the attacks took place outside the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah late Tuesday night.
The militants struck near a water control station and a lock system on a canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River where army forces have been deployed for the Anbar offensive, he said.
Ibrahim added that the Islamic State extremists used a sandstorm that engulfed most of Iraq on Tuesday night to launch the deadly wave of bombings. He said it was not clear how many suicide attackers were involved in the bombings but they hit the military from multiple directions.
Last month, the water station near Fallujah fell into the hands of Islamic State militants — following attacks that also included multiple suicide bombings and that killed a general commanding the 1st Division and a dozen other officers and soldiers, he said.
Iraqi government forces recaptured the station a few days later. Fallujah lies to the east of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, which was captured by the Islamic State militants nearly two weeks ago in what was a major, humiliating defeat for Iraqi troops at the hands of the extremists."
---Associated Press, May 27, 2015
Peter Van Buren: Iraq is Broken, May 27, 2015
"Is there hope for Iraq? It depends on what you are hoping for.
It is becoming clearer that there is little hope of destroying Islamic State in Iraq. Islamic State has no shortage of new recruits. Its fighters capture heavy weapons with such ease that the United States is forced to direct air strikes against equipment abandoned by the Iraqis — even as it ships in more. Islamic State holds territory that will allow it to trade land for time, morph into an insurgency and preserve its forces by pulling back into Syrian territory it controls even if Iraq’s government, with Iranian and American help, launches a major assault.
Islamic State maintains support among Iraq’s Sunnis. The more the Shi’ites align against it, the more Sunnis see no other choice but to support Islamic State, as they did al Qaeda after the American invasion in 2003. Stories from Tikrit, where Shi’ite militia-led forces defeated Islamic State, describe 'a ghost town ruled by gunmen.' There are other reports of ethnic cleansing in the Euphrates Valley town of Jurf al-Sakhar. Absent a unified Iraq, there will always be an al Qaeda, an Islamic State or another iteration of it to defend the Sunnis.
The only way for Iraq to remain unified was a stalemate of force, with no side having the might to win nor weak enough to lose, with negotiations to follow. As the United States passively watched the Iranians become its proxy boots on the ground against Islamic State, all the while knowing Tehran’s broader agenda was a Shi’ite Iraqi client, that possibility was lost.
It’s possible to pin down the failure to a single battle. The last hope that Iraq would not become an Iranian client was dashed after Islamic State’s defeat in Tikrit. The victory triggered the Iraqi central government to dismiss American and Kurdish support for a drive toward strategically important Mosul. The government all but abandoned the idea of a nonsectarian national army; it turned instead to a gang of Iranian-supported Shi’ite militias with a bundle of anti-Sunni agendas. Baghdad pointed those forces toward Ramadi."
---Peter Van Buren, Reuters, May 27, 2015
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum Announces his Candidacy for President
May 27, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photos of former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum during his presidential candidacy announcement event in Cabot, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Associated Press: Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum Announces his Presidential Candidacy, May 27, 2015
"Conservative culture warrior Rick Santorum launched a 2016 White House bid on Wednesday, vowing to fight for working-class Americans in a new election season that will test his influence — and focus on social issues — in a changing Republican Party."
---Associated Press, May 27, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Baltimore Orioles 5, Houston Astros 4
May 27, 2015 (Wednesday)
Above: AP photo of Major League Baseball action between the Baltimore Orioles and the Houston Astros, Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Baltimore Orioles 5, Houston Astros 4
Former New York Governor George Pataki Announces his Presidential Candidacy
May 28, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Former New York Governor George Pataki
Associated Press: Former New York Governor George Pataki Announces his Candidacy for President, May 28, 2015
"George Pataki, the 9/11-era New York governor who achieved electoral success as a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination Thursday, offering himself as a unifying figure in a divided nation."
---Associated Press, May 28, 2015
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, Indicted on Federal Charges
May 28, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: Portrait of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois; AP photo of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, in 2007
Reuters: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) Indicted on Federal Charges, May 28, 2015
"Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted on Thursday on federal charges, including for lying to the FBI, relating to an alleged effort to hide $3.5 million in payments to a person to conceal past misconduct.
The Illinois Republican, who left office in 2007, was charged with structuring the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000, and lying to the FBI about his withdrawals, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said.
Each count of the two-count indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Hastert, 73, was not available for comment, according to his office at the Dickstein Shapiro law firm in Washington where he is listed as a senior adviser.
According to the indictment, the unspecified misconduct involved payments to an unnamed individual who had been a Yorkville, Illinois, resident and had known Hastert for most of the person's life."
---Reuters, May 28, 2015
Associated Press: Republican Dennis Hastert, the Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Indicted on Federal Charges, May 28, 2015
"Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about 'prior misconduct' by the Illinois Republican who was once third in line to the U.S. presidency, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down on Thursday in Chicago.
The indictment, which does not describe the misconduct Hastert was allegedly trying to conceal, charges the 73-year-old with one count of evading bank regulations as he withdrew tens of thousands of dollars at a time to make the payments. He is also charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual bank withdrawals.
Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Associated Press left a phone message seeking comment with a person at Hastert's Washington, D.C., office. It was not immediately returned. Hastert did not immediately return a message left on his cellphone seeking comment, or respond to an email.
Hastert withdrew a total of around $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts from 2010 to 2014, and then provided it to the person identified in the indictment only as Individual A. Hastert allegedly agreed to pay the person $3.5 million, but never apparently paid that full amount.
The indictment notes Hastert was a high school teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981 in suburban Yorkville, about 50 miles west of Chicago. While the indictment says Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville and has known Hastert most of his life, it doesn't describe their relationship."
---Associated Press, May 28, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Boston Red Sox 5, Texas Rangers 1
May 28, 2015 (Thursday)
Above: AP photo of a Boston Red Sox pitcher in Major League Baseball action against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, Thursday, May 28, 2015
Boston Red Sox 5, Texas Rangers 1
The Syrian Civil War: Insurgents Capture Syrian Town
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: Wikipedia map of Syria;Al-Nusra Front Flag
Reuters: Coverage of the Syrian Civil War, May 29, 2015
"Insurgents who captured the last government-held town in Syria's Idlib province celebrated inside on Friday and made more advances in surrounding areas, in a further blow to the stretched army and allied militia.
The 'Army of Fatah' alliance which includes al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group and other factions, captured Ariha town on Thursday night as the Syrian military pulled back.
The army has lost large parts of the northwestern province to insurgents since late March, when the provincial capital fell to Army of Fatah, a name which refers to Islamic conquest.
The recent advances have brought insurgents closer to the coastal Latakia province, President Bashar al-Assad's ancestral homeland and an area of importance to his government.
The army and allied militia have increasingly focused on defending Syria's western flank which includes Latakia, Homs city and Damascus further south.
By Friday the insurgents had advanced further, capturing at least four villages close to Ariha in heavy clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and social media accounts linked to groups in the alliance reported."
---Reuters, May 29, 2015
The United States Drops Cuba From List of Nations Considered to be Sponsors of Terrorism
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: President Barack Obama; Map of Cuba
Reuters: U.S. Drops Cuba From List of Nations Considered to be Sponsors of Terrorism, May 29, 2015
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, Reportedly Sought to Conceal Alleged Sexual Misconduct with a Male Student
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: Portrait of Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the United States House of Representative, 1999-2007; Politico.com photo of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (upper right) standing behind President George W. Bush and next to Vice President Dick Cheney during the State of the Union address on January 29, 2002
Los Angeles Times: Former House Speaker Hastert Sought to Conceal Alleged Sexual Misconduct with a Male Student in Illinois, May 29,2015
"Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying an individual from his past to conceal sexual misconduct, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.
One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said 'Individual A,' as the person is described in Thursday’s federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said."
---Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2015
New York Times: Coverage of the Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert Scandal and Indictment, May 29, 2015
"J. Dennis Hastert, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, was paying a man to not say publicly that Mr. Hastert had sexually abused him decades ago, according to two people briefed on the evidence uncovered in an F.B.I. investigation into the payments.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced the indictment of Mr. Hastert on allegations that he made cash withdrawals designed to hide those payments and for lying to federal authorities about the purpose of the withdrawals.
The man — who was not identified in court papers — told the F.B.I. that he had been inappropriately touched by Mr. Hastert when Mr. Hastert was a high school teacher and wrestling coach, the two people said on Friday. The people briefed on the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a federal investigation."
---New York Times, May 29, 2015
Washington Post: Coverage of the Dennis Hastert Indictment and Scandal, May 29, 2015
"Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert was trying to cover up decades-old allegations that he sexually molested a male victim to whom he recently paid hush money in violation of federal banking laws, according to a federal law enforcement official briefed on the case.
Hastert’s suspected misconduct dates back to a time when he was a teacher and coach in Illinois before entering politics in the early 1980s, the official said. Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker in House history, is not expected to face any charges relating to the alleged misconduct because authorities don’t believe they have enough corroborating evidence to bring a case against him.
A federal grand jury in Chicago on Friday indicted the former speaker on charges that he violated banking laws in a bid to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed person to cover up 'past misconduct.' The male victim is that person, the official said."
---Washington Post, May 29, 2015
Associated Press: Coverage of the Dennis Hastert Indictment and Alleged Sex Scandal, May 29, 2015
"Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid hush money to conceal claims that the Illinois Republican sexually molested someone decades ago, a person familiar with the allegations said Friday."
---Associated Press, May 29, 2015
Chicago Sun-Times: At Least Two Possible Hastert Victims Interviewed by Law Enforcement
"Federal authorities have interviewed at least two victims of sexual misconduct in the case against former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The longest-serving GOP speaker allegedly paid hush money to cover up sexual misconduct with one male student dating to his time as a coach and teacher in Yorkville, the source said.
The source said federal investigators identified, then interviewed, at least one other alleged victim in the case against Hastert. The second victim’s statements to investigators were critical to corroborating allegations of past sexual misconduct, the source said. There was no allegation of a financial relationship involving the second individual, the source said."
---Chicago Sun-Times, May 29, 2015
New York Times: The Rise and Fall of Coach Hastert
"The Sept. 11 attacks — and the possibility that the Capitol itself was a target of Flight 93 that was brought down by passengers in Pennsylvania — turned Mr. Hastert into a hard-line conservative on national security issues, and he happily and aggressively pressed President Bush’s agenda on antiterrorism measures and the Iraq war.
But public dissatisfaction with the war eventually took its toll as Democrats pushed their case with increasing success against a House Republican regime that was becoming exhausted both ethically and legislatively by 2006. The final straw that year was the uproar that followed disclosures that Representative Mark Foley of Florida had sent sexually suggestive messages to underage House pages.
Mr. Hastert and his inner circle were seen as not taking appropriate steps despite warnings of the activities of Mr. Foley and the furor in the final days before the November 2006 elections sealed the fate of both House Republicans and Mr. Hastert. He was re-elected to his own seat but dropped out of the leadership and took up residence in a private office in the Capitol, counting off the days until his retirement and a big-money lobbying career.
Now he is enmeshed in his own scandal, facing felony charges, public scrutiny and difficult questions about his behavior. There may be no good Hastert rule for dealing with all that."
---New York Times, May 29, 2015
New York Times: Hastert's Millions
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Miami Marlins 4, New York Mets 3
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of Miami Marlins manager Dan Jennings prior to the start of the Major League Baseball game between the Marlins and the New York Mets in New York, Friday, May 29, 2015; AP photo of a Miami Marlins batter in action versus the New York Mets in New York, Friday, May 29, 2015
Miami Marlins 4, New York Mets 3
2015 Major League Baseball Season: San Francisco Giants 4, Atlanta Braves 2
May 29, 2015 (Friday)
Above: AP photo of San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Hudson in Major League Baseball action versus the Atlanta Braves in San Francisco, Friday, May 29, 2015
Giants 4, Braves 2
Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Declares his Candidacy for President
May 30, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley speaking during his presidential candidacy announcement event in Baltimore, Saturday, May 30, 2015
Associated Press: Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Declares his Presidential Candidacy, May 30, 2015
"Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley entered the Democratic presidential race on Saturday in a longshot challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2016 nomination, casting himself as a new generation leader who would rebuild the economy and reform Wall Street."
---Associated Press, May 30, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 8, Washington Nationals 5
May 30, 2015 (Saturday)
Above: AP photo of a Cincinnati Reds pitcher in Major League Baseball action versus the Washington Nationals in Cincinnati, Saturday, May 30, 2015
Cincinnati Reds 8, Washington Nationals 5
Dennis Hastert Scandal: Wheaton College Announces Removal of Hastert's Name from Center
May 31, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1999-2007
Associated Press: Wheaton College Removes Dennis Hastert's Name from Center
"A Christian college in suburban Chicago has removed the name of former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert from an academic research center.
Wheaton College announced Sunday that what had been known as the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy is now just named after the school.
The center was established in 2007 when Hastert stepped down from Congress after eight years as speaker."
---Associated Press, May 31, 2015
New York Times: Wheaton College Distances itself from Alumnus Dennis Hastert
"The alma mater of J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, announced on Sunday that it had scrubbed his name from the school’s public policy center, after his indictment on charges that he lied to the F.B.I. about financial transactions he made to cover up past sexual misconduct.
Wheaton College, the Christian liberal arts school in Illinois where Mr. Hastert graduated in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, made the decision after his federal indictment on Thursday.
Prosecutors and investigators said Mr. Hastert, 73, made cash withdrawals from banks in a way that was designed to hide that he was paying $3.5 million to conceal the misconduct, according to the indictment. Officials familiar with the case said he was paying a former student to keep quiet about sexual abuse, which went back decades to Mr. Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Ill."
---New York Times, May 31, 2015
2015 Major League Baseball Season: Cincinnati Reds 8, Washington Nationals 2
May 31, 2015 (Sunday)
Above: AP photo of a Cincinnati Reds player sliding as a Washington Nationals player awaits a throw in Major League Baseball action in Cincinnati, Sunday, May 31, 2015
Cincinnati Reds 8, Washington Nationals 2
Chicago Cubs 2, Kansas City Royals 1 Chicago White Sox 6, Houston Astros 0
June 2015